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HAMILTON COLLEGE 
LIBRARY. 

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Book, la'. 



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PRACTICALEVANGELISM. 



""Ksi^j 



PEACTICAL EYAMELISM : 



OR 



BIBLE CHRISTIANITY ENFORCED. 



BY 



WILLIAM M. CHE EVER, 

TERKE-HAUTE, INDIANA. 



"He that winneth souls is wise." 



BOSTON: 

CONGREGATIONAL BOAllD OF PUBLICATION, 

16 TREMONT TEMPLE. 

1856. 






<* 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 

SEWALL HAEDING, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 






l^^r^A^./fs 



C AMBlllBGE : 
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STERE0TYPER3 AND PRINTERS. 



Z 






TO 



THE REV. LYMAN BEECHER, D.D., 

TO WHOM, UNDER GOD, THE WRITER IS MORE INDEBTED FOR WHAT 

HE IS, THAN TO ANY OTHER LIVING MAN, AND WHOSE LONG 

AND USEFUL MINISTERIAL LIFE HAS BEEN A LUCID 

EXPONENT OF THE SENTIMENTS OP 

THIS ESSAY, 

THESE PAGES 

ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



A* 



" stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good 
way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6 : 16. 

*' Truly, if ever there was a period when the whole Christian world should lie 
down upon their faces before the throne of mercy, imploring with all the impor- 
tunity, and boldness, and perseverance of faith, a race of ministers, each full of 
the Holy Grhost, — that period is passing over us." Dr. Skinner. 

" The faith delivered to the saints, produced a piety of great solemnity, and 
ardor, and decision, ... a love to Jesus Christ so ardent, an avowal of his doctrines 
so undaunted, and an enterprise so efficient, as moved on from conquering to 
conquer, through good report and evil, through honor and dishonor, through fire 
and blood." Dr. Beecher. 

" Lord, revive thy work ! " Habakkuk 3 : 2. 

(vii) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFECTS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER WHICH HINDER THE TRIUMPHS 
OF THE redeemer's KINGDOM IN THE EARTH. 

Grandeur of the Subject. — The Redeemer's Kingdom shall ulti- 
mately Triumph. — Present Difficulties real and gigantic. — The 
"Worldly Spirit. — Absence of Practical Religion. — Want of Iden- 
tity with Christ. — Lukewarmness. — Want of Solicitude for 
Souls. — Want of true Philanthropy and genuine Brotherhood. — 
A dead Paith. — Moral Cowardice. — Want of true Self-denial. — 
A Low Standard of Liberality. — Defective System of Lay Coopera- 
tion Page 1 



CHAPTER n. 

CAUSES OF THESE DEFECTS. 

Defective Household Instruction. — Superficial Ecclesiastical Train- 
ing. — Indissoluble Alliance of Doctrine and Duty. — Defective 
Method and Style of Preaching. — Dr. Mason's Rebuke. — De- 
nominational Competition. — Ambition to preside over Large Par- 
ishes. — Too low a Yiew of the Nature of True Religion. — Five 
Classes of Unconverted Church-Members. — Decline of Revivals. — 
Temptations and Tendencies of the Age 14 

CHAPTER IIL 

THE MODEL CHARACTER. 

Every Man has his Model. — Jeremiah Evarts. — The only Safe 
Example. — The Renewed Man. — Paith and Works. — The well- 

(ix) 



: CONTEXTS. 

balanced Character. — " Who went about doing Good/' ■ — Devotion 
and Energy. — Steadfastness. — Individuality. — Consecration. — 
Chrysostom's Favorite Motto. — Earnestness. — Christ the Great 
Model. — Ignatius. — Bishop Cranmer. — Moral PowQr of such a 
Character. — PoUok's Picture of the Millennium 25 



CHAPTER ly. 

FAITH, AS AN ALL-CONQUEEING PRINCIPLE OF PRACTICAL LIFE. 

The Church-Member and his Pastor. — Poverty of Language a Diffi- 
culty in the way of defining Faith. — Various Definitions.— -Heb. 
11 : 1. — Faith something more than a Theory. — A Demonstra- 
tion. — Illustrated in the Lives of Bible "Worthies. — Subordinating 
things Earthly to things Heavenly. — The Faith of the present Age 
too Feeble. — Need of the Ancient Faith revived. — To secure 
entire Consecration. — John M. Campbell. — Efi'ectual Prayer. — 
The Waldensian Watchword, " Lux lucet in tenebris.'^ — The 
Moral Power of a Livino^ Faith 40 



CHAPTER Y. 

TRUE SELF-DENIAL — AS ESSENTIAL TO DISCIPLESHIP AND AN ELE- 
MENT OF POWDER. 

The important Bearing of the Doctrine. — The True Sense of Mat- 
thew 10 : 37, 38, and Luke 9 : 23. — Supreme Love for Christ. — 
The Theological Student. — Instances from Missionary Life. — 
Perfect Self-sacrifice. — Amount of Self-denial in the Church. — 
Instances of culpable Departure from the Gospel Rule. — In- 
stances of Partial Approximation to it. — Dr. Coan^s Tribute to 
the Church at Ililo. — ''Churches of Macedonia.'' — The "Two 
Mites." — The Guilt of the Church. — The Reign of Mammon 55 



CHAPTER VL 

MEANS OF ATTAINING A HIGHER STANDARD OF PIETY. 

The longing of the Soul for Higher Life. — Realize fully our Posi- 
tion. — Resolve to maintain it. — The Good attained proportioned 
to the Effort made. — "Put dov/n my Name, Sir." — Our absorb- 
ing Business to win Souls. — Familiarity with the Condition of the 
Ungodly. — Make the most of the Living Ministry. — " Take heed 



COUTTENTS. XI 

how ye hear/' — Simplicity godly Sincerity. — Prayerful Atten- 
tion. — Mariette Guyon. — The Influence of the Sabbath. — Com- 
mune with the Bible. — Intimate Eeliowship with all the Holy. — 
Communing with the Heart of Christ. — Prayer, Self-abandon- 
ment, and Self-abasement. — Six Christian Wives. — The Praying 
Mother. — " The Prevailer." — Power of Christian Association. — 
Testimony of P. Neff. — United Prayer 74 



CHAPTER VIL 

MOTIVES TO HOLT LIVING. 

Great Triumphs preceded by unusual Developments of Faith. — The 
Divine Law of Evangelism. — The Grandeur of the Appeal. — It 
must be met. — The Army of Gideon. — Leonidas. — Extent of our 
Country. — Condition of our Country. — Tide of Emigration. — 
Character of Eoreign Population. — Educational, Political, Moral, 
and Religious Aspect of our Country. — Conversion of the Whole 
World. — Appalling Condition of the Heathen. — Union of the 
whole Church in a practical Oneness. — " The Time is at Hand.'' — 
Redemption Complete. — Probation Ended. — Retribution Begun. 
— Final Appeal 98 



PEACTICAL EYANGELISM, 



BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 



CHAPTER I. 

" Go YE INTO ALL THE WORLD, AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY 

creature/' — Mark 16 : 15. 
"Cast ye up, cast ye up; prepare the way, take up the 

stumblingblock out of the way of my people ! " isa. 

57: 14. 

Evert thing connected with, or relating to the 
Gospel, is important. Whether you speak of the 
advent of the Son of God, or recount the labors of 
the humble missionary who goes forth to proclaim 
glad tidings to the lost ; whether you regard it as 
illustrated in the " God have mercy on me a sin- 
ner ! " of the penitent who kneels at the cross, or as 
in the new song of that great multitude which no 
man can number — it is grand. 

That feature of this subject which we now pro- 
pose to examine, is of great practical moment, and 
crowded with intense interest. 

1 



2 PRACTICAL ETAyGELISM, 

By Practical Evangelism^ is meant the promulga- 
tion of the Gospel ; the constant, faithful, and suc- 
cessful enforcement of the docti'iiies of the Cross, for 
the conversion of sinners to God ; the development 
and consecration of the Christian church to this 
gi*and object; the sacred emplo}Tnent of all those 
means which the Great Head of the church has fur- 
nished TO bring men of all classes and of all chmes 
into an experimental acquaintance with the Gospel. 

In developing and eniorcmg this subject, it shall 
be our dut}' : — 

I. To SET FOETH THE DEFECTS OF ChRISTIAK 
CBLIEACTER WHICH nrST>EE THE TRIUjIPH OF THE 

Redeeaiee'S kln'obom ox the eaeth ; axd the 

CAUSES OF these DEFECTS. 

The Redeemer's Kingdom ! What is it ? ^^Tiat 
are the elements of its power ? How does it differ 
from the kingdoms of this world, in its origin, object, 
the iTieans of its triumph, its duration, and universal- 
it}', are questions which, at this time and place, we 
cannot stop to answer. Li the sublime petition, 
''" Thy kingdom come,*' we are taught that it shall 
extend over all this apostate world. That it shall 
spread, not tln*ough the influence of money, or intel- 
lectual greatness, or political power, or legislative 
diplomacy ; but by the truth and the Spirit of God. 
The church of the Redeemer is Ae appointed herald 
of that truth. K the instrumentahty be lame ; if 
hinderances arise in the church, or in radical defects 
of Christian character, then there are serious obsta- 
cles which must be removed. 

That obstacles to the spread of the Redeemer's 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 3 

kingdom in the world exist, based upon radical 
defects in Christian character, is too true ! obstacles 
real and gigantic; that do not arise alone from the 
nature of that kingdom, nor from external forms of 
vice, nor from unholy and malicious combinations 
to oppose the truth, — nor from the various types of 
infidehty afloat, nor from modes of church govern- 
ment, but from radical defects in Christian character^ 
— obstacles, which if all the others were remxoved, 
would be potent enough to hinder the cause ; and 
w^hich, if removed, and all the others existing, would 
annihilate the greatest difficulties in the way of the 
Redeemer's kingdom. 

Such obstacles exist. They are palpable. They 
should be contemplated, mourned over, and removed. 
The Redeemer's kingdom should no longer find its 
greatest opposition in the lukewarmness or inconsis- 
tency of its professed friends. There should be no 
traitors, at least in the citadel. What are they? 
First, and parent of many others, stands out the 
"WORLDLY SPIRIT — that caring for the flesh which the 
apostle has tersely denominated the " carnal mind." 
It is appalling enough to witness the fruit of that 
spirit in the lives of the ^' children of disobedience," 
blinding their minds, searing their consciences, and 
rendering impotent for their good, the powers of 
the world to come ; but to behold that spirit lifting 
up its head in the church of God, swaying its sceptre 
over minds professing to be renewed in the spirit and 
temper of Christ, is overwhelming, and should prompt 
the deprecatory prayer, " Cast us not away from thy 
presence^ and take not thy Holy Spirit from us^ 

" Should some angelic company travelling through 



4 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

the empire of their Creator, arrive for the first time 
on the confines of our orb, and be informed that to 
the myriads whom they behold, the gates of everlast- 
ing happiness had been opened by their God and 
Saviour, would they not with intuitive rapidity con- 
clude, that with hearts beating high with hope, this 
vast multitude was preparing for the heavenly inher- 
itance ? And when, after gazing a little longer they 
should ascertain the real anxieties and business, and 
pleasures of men, what would be their second emo 
tion? 

" ^ Dim sadness would not spare 
That day, celestial visages/ " 

But a far sadder sight have we every day to con- 
template ; a sight that might almost unstring the 
harps of heaven : the spirit of the world in the church 
supplanting the Spirit of God ; and the " spiritual " 
gradually receding before the impudent encroach- 
ment of the " carnal." Those professing to be the pur- 
chase of Infinite Love, the heirs of infinite glory, de- 
basing themselves to the spirit and level of the purely 
worldly man ! Those redeemed to be " a peculiar 
people, zealous of good works," conforming to the 
world in aims, desires, and labors, insomuch that we 
dare not apply to them the eulogy of Christ, " they 
are not of the worW Deep in the heart of the 
church seem to be imbedded habits of worldly feel- 
ing and action. Not only is there a bias or tendency 
that way, but there is absolute worldly conformity. 
In selfishness, in pleasure seeking, in ambition and 
love of applause, in mammon worship, and in the 
engrossing cares of this world, the church has, too 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIAmTT. 5 

often, forgotten her high position, and another spirit, 
entirely antagonistic to the spirit of true piety, seems 
to hold dominion in the body of Christ. 

And all this too, in the face of such unambiguous 
declarations as these : — " They are not of the world, 
even as I am not of the world." " If any man will 
be a friend of the world, he is the enemy of God." 
" Ye are the light of the world." " But God forbid 
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, 
and I unto the world." 

Again we say, that for a member of the church of 
the living God, the " peculiar people," to yield to 
the unsanctified spirit of the world, is sad ; but when 
we see multitudes of them swept along before that 
tide, and pride, avarice, and pleasure dash their 
waves over the very ark of God, it is truly appalling. 
The church coming to the world, instead of drawing 
up the world to it ! A worldly-minded Christian — 
what a paradox ! When such a spirit has bound the 
church of God, and when through its withering 
power her strength is paralyzed, can we be wrong in 
saying, that here we are to find the principal hin- 
drance to the triumph of the Redeemer's kingdom 
on the earth ? 

This will be still more apparent when we consider 
another hindrance, of which this is the parent, 
namely : — 

2. Want of every-day Practical Religion. There 
is not as much Sabbath day religion as there should 
be, but it is too often almost the only kind we have, 
the only religion that is any thing more than a senti- 
ment, that manifests itself to the world, and then it 



6 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

cannot often be distinguished from the religion of the 
worldly man. He goes to church with us punctually, 
sits by us, hears the word, sings God's praise appar- 
ently with as much unction ; but there his religion 
ends, and alas! that it must be admitted, in the 
main, ours too. In what respect, then, does the piety 
of the nominal Christian differ from that of the 
worldly man ? We say, with us, religion is a reality, 
a living, worldng principle. With him, it is a mere 
form. That his is mere form, there can be no 
doubt, but that ours is uniformly a reality, we take 
issue. In what respect is it a living, working prin- 
ciple ? In what respect does it resemble the apos- 
tolic type, for in aU our wandering and progress, we 
must go back to that. 

We have the theoretical religion, but have we the 
practical? We have the fig-tree, sufficiently fair 
and pleasing to the eye, hut it bears no fruity and "by 
their fruits ye shaU know them." And here is it that 
the Pvcdeemer's kingdom is retarded. Our light does 
not shinej with a daily and increasing radiancy. We 
have not such manifest good works, upspringing 
from faith and love, that men — aU men — see them 
and glorify God. 

3. A third hindrance is, Want of identity ivith 
Christ, — in the aim of his mission; and in the prac- 
tical work of converting the world, and subjecting 
empires to the peaceable reign of the Messiah. 

To judge from appearances, the number of those 
who practically acknowledge that Christ's cause and 
theirs is one and the same, is small. If a jury of 
angels or men was called upon to draw a conclusion 
from the general character of our labor, (so long 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 7 

divided between the world and Christ,) they would 
hardly be able to tell with which interest we were 
the most cordially identified. 

No wonder the cause has been retarded, when it 
has been doubtful on which side the professed cham- 
pions of the truth would declare themselves, — when 
the great majority of those who have covenanted be- 
fore the world that they would " know nothing 
among men but Jesus Christ and him crucified," 
have known the world almost as much as Christ! 
— when they have forgotten that by the very nature 
of the spiritual union between them and the Re- 
deemer, all the identity of aim, and practical labor 
which it implies, is solemnly pledged. 

This want of individual identity with the interests 
of the kingdom, spring in part from another radical 
defect in Christian character, namely : — 

4. Want of love to Christ. It is a pity that the 
rebuke of John to the church at Ephesus, should be 
so often and generally merited. " I have somewhat 
against thee, because thou hast left thy first loveP It 
is lamentable that so few of the disciples of Jesus 
are noted for such intense ardor in his service that 
they can with Paul cry out, " the love of Christ con- 
strains us." That so few of us can with Peter, 
appealing to the omniscient One, exclaim, " Lord, 
thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love 
thee." With such a love, as that which sent Paul, 
and Whitefield, and Edwards, like burning seraphs 
through the churches, bearing the message of Divine 
truth to dying men, how would the Gospel spread. 
Then the angel of God might stand with trumpet in 
hand and cry. 



PRACTICAL EYAXGELISM, 

"Fly abroad, thou mighty Gospel; 
Win and conquer, never cease." 



But our " first love " has grov^-n cold ! other objects 
divide our hearts. Christ is not alone on the throne. 
Unworthy idols have crowded in. Our love is too 
often a cold abstraction, and not a lining, energizing 
principle. Too often is it merely an intellectual 
exercise. It is not that gusliing up of the whole 
heart and soul — that all-absorbing passion which 
the Psalmist felt when he said, " AYhom have I in 
heaven but thee, and there is none upon the earth 
whom I desire beside thee ! '' " As the hart panteth 
after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 
O God." 

5. Another defect is icaiii of solicitude for soidSj — 
an interest real, abiding, commensurate with the un- 
speakable interests at stake — and altogether befit- 
ting a pardoned sinner and child of God, — not an 
impulsive and spasmodic anxiety, but one springing 
fi*om Christian principle, — not a mere transient 
sympathy, but a genuine, ruling passion, excited by 
the Spirit of God, in view of their condition as seen 
in the light of the world to come. 

Such interest made Paul exclaim, " My heart's 
desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they 
might be saved." Such a solicitude became the 
ruling passion in Page and IMcCheyne and Brai- 
nerd, and the first modern missionaries to India. 

Does not observation and experience constrain us 
to conclude that such interest does not now gener- 
ally prevail ? Doubtless it exists in many isolated 
cases ; but it is rather the exception than the general 



OB, BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 9 

rule. Occasionally do we find one weighed down 
with this holy solicitude for immortal beings un- 
der condemnation — on the brink of death — ex- 
posed to the wrath of God. But on the part of 
most of us, there is apathy, deep, abiding, mournful, 
and guilty, — deep, for nothing seems able to disturb 
it, — abiding, for it is the prevailing characteristic, — 
mournful, for it is apathy over souls going down to 
death eternal, — guilty, because it is a direct violation 
of the command of God and of our covenant vow. 

6. From this arises another radical defect in 
Christian character, namely. Want of true and Christ- 
like sympathy for the poor and downcast : the want 
of a deep and genuine feeKng of true brotherhood 
with all classes of men of all climes and castes. 
Among all professed Christians there is too much of 
the leaven of aristocracy ; too much of the feeling of 
Simon, in whose house Jesus dined, when he would 
have rebuked the erring woman who wept at Jesus' 
feet, and Jesus also for not spurning her. "We are 
deficient in true benevolence of heart, in a genuine 
feeling of brotherhood. It is too much a cold 
abstraction with us, that we are all brethren ; that 
no matter how unlike in education, in refinement, in 
morals all men are, they are our neighbors, and we 
should love them, search them out, and show them a 
real interest, like that of Jesus for the outcast. 

That the want of this genuine sympathy is always 
a radical defect in Christian character, eminently 
adapted to retard the Redeemer's kingdom, is appar- 
ent, if we look at the number of vagi-ants, poor and 
despised ones, — at the hundreds of vile and aban- 
doned crowding every large town and city through- 



10 PRACTICAL EVAN(?ELISM, 

out our republic, — at the thousands of foreigners 
who are rapidly filling up our States and territories, 
— and at our three and a half millions of slaves. 
With regard to all these, are we not too much in- 
clined to stand aloof? 

Let them feel the warm beating of our hearts; 
hearts yearning over them with a true love and large 
benevolence. It will, by the grace of God, melt 
away these icy barriers. 

7. Another common defect is the want of a living 
faith^ — as an active, controlling principle, " actually 
subordinating things earthly to things heavenly," — 
a faith that is as far above mere formahsm as the 
spiritual transcends the material ; a faith which is 
the proof indubitable of deep, heartfelt religion ; the 
sure " evidence of things not seen ; " that springs 
from the inner life, and regulates and controls the 
outward ; which establishes the perfect harmony 
between a rich, overflowing, personal experience, and 
an active life consecrated to practical evangelism. 

Such a faith in the church of God, save in rare 
instances, is wanting. It is a radical defect in Chris- 
tian character, without which the man is of no more 
practical use, than an engine without motive power. 
Alas ! that it should be so ! that our faith should be 
dead^ — a mere body without a soul, — a theory 
without living power,— ^ a mere vapid sentiment, that 
energizes no soul, that makes sublime no life, that 
lifts no one above the world, and that does not make 
the powers of the world to come living and present 
realities. 

No wonder the Ptcdeemer's kingdom is retarded ! 

8. Hence, too, for want of a Living Faith^ arises 



OR BIBLE CHBISTIANITY. 11 

want of true Moral Courage. Holy boldness en- 
ables the child of God, in the defence of his prin- 
ciples and the truth of his God, to stand up before 
any foe, and say with Peter, " Whether is it right in 
the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto 
God^ judge ye I '' Or with Luther, " We com do no 
other — so help us God! " 

But we are too afraid oi public opinion; for the 
public, all the world over, is yet against God, the 
church, and the right. Vf e are afraid of being called 
singular^ or fanatical^ or pious^ when we should 
" glory in the cross." We too much resemble the 
frightened band in Gethsemane, who all "forsook 
him and fled." "We, who should know no fear, — 
who should maintain the honor of God, and the 
interests of Christ^s kingdom to the death, have for- 
gotten this word, " Blessed are ye when men shall 
revile you, and persecute you." " Rejoice and be 
exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: 
for so persecuted they the prophets which were be- 
fore you." 

9. Want of true Gospel self-denial^ such as Christ 
taught, the apostles preached, and the early Chris- 
tians practised: who did not consider themselves 
their own ; who felt they were bought with a price : 
who endured the loss of all things, that they might 
win Christ, " and be found in him ; " who counted 
not their own lives dear ; who endured persecution ; 
who took up then cross daily and followed Christ, 
through evil as well as through good report ; who 
responded heartily to the consecration motto, " So 
we have left all, and followed thee." 

So far from this being true in the main, of the pro- 



12 

fessed church of God, it is now only true of the ex- 
ceptions. Nay, the reverse of all this would seem to 
be true ! 

But as this matter of faith and self-denial is a ques- 
tion of vital importance, the more full discussion of 
it must be reserved for separate chapters. 

10. From this springs another defect, which we 
can only in this place mention — the want of a true 
and enlarged libe?'aKt7/,—^n entire consecration of 
ALL to God ; of body, mind, will, affections, influence, 
time, friends, money, of aU we are and hope to be. 
Such consecration the Jews had when they built the 
tabernacle, and every man, woman, and child brought 
any and all the treasures they possessed, until Moses 
told them to forbear ! he had enongh^ and too much ! 
(See also 2 Cor. 8: 7. 9: 6, 7, 8. Acts 20: 35. 2: 44. 
Matt. 10 : 8.) How few of us " remember the words 
of the Lord Jesus, that it is more blessed to give 
than to receive." 

11. We cannot here forbear to mention as a de- 
fect in our church devielopment, as well as a defect in 
Cln'istian character, the want of hearty^ efficient lay 
cooperation in developing the resources of the church. 

The labor of practical evangelism is too exclu- 
sively thrown upon the ministry, who often have 
themselves alone to blame for it. An intelligent and 
rich layman in the West said to his pastor, " Do not 
ask me to attend prayer-meeting, or pray, or any 
thing of that sort ; I cannot do that. But if money 
will aid you, just tell me what you want, and you 
shall have it!" While it is a matter of rejoicing 
that some few of our opulent members are liberal 
with their money, it is a great defect in our method, 



OE BIBLE CHUISTIAKITY* 13 

that most of the lay brethren are virtually excluded 
from the work of practical ChristiaPxity. Hence 
their dwarfish spiritual stature, and hence, too, the 
dragging of the wheels of Evangelism* True, all 
our members cannot, even by the most incessant and 
cordial cooperation, develop into such Christians as 
Harlan Page and Jeremiah Evarts, but a great many 
more can than do. 

Are these things so, dear brethren ? "I speak as 
unto wise men, judge 3/e what I say*'' Do these 
defects in Christian character reeJly exist, or is this 
note of alarm premature ? 

Is it true that I am hindering the triumphs of the 
Redeemer's kingdom ? That I am. really in the way 
. of the spread of the Gospel and the conversion of 
souls? "While the last days are coming on with 
their overwhelming responsibilities, I am not ready 
to meet them. While the world is opening for the 
bread of life, I am not prepared to give it» While 
one holy example would tell for infinite good, and 
one shining light would save some shipwrecked 
mariner, my example is pernicious and my light has 
gone out. 

I, even I, a professed child of God, an heir of 
heaven, bought with blood, an avowed coworker 
v/ith Christ, I am in the way ! I who daily pray, 
" Thy kingdom come ! " am raising up gigantic 
hindrances to the rapid spread of that kingdom 
throughout the earth ! God have mercy on me, and 
help me to remove them ! 

2 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CAUSES OF THESE DEFECTS. 



"Go, SET A WATCHMAN, LET HIM DECLARE WHAT HE SEETH/' — 

Isa. 21 : 6. 

"Within the limit of this Essay it will be impos- 
sible to elaborate this topic. We can at most but 
specify a few leading causes. 

1. Defective Household Instruction* 

In the first place, children are not taught prompt, 
cheerful obedience. They are suffered to have their 
own way. Hence, when they come into the Idng- 
dom, they are wilful and impulsive. 

In the second place, they are not taught to con- 
sider themselves as belonging entirely to God, as 
solemnly consecrated, like Samuel, from the birth to 
their Saviour. They have hardly the first idea of 
consecration. They are taught to be selfish and 
worldly. 

They see that the world is the parent's god. Is it 
strange that when they arrive at manhood they 
should practically reject religion, Christ, and heaven? 

The father of Hannibal took his young son when 
nine years old, when the solemnity of the transac- 
tion would produce the most vivid impression on his 

(14) 



PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 15 

imagination, and made him swear over the altar of 
his god, with his hand on the victim, eternal hatred 
to the Romans. The Carthaginian general in all his 
after career never forgot that lesson. 

If with something of that solemnity, parents 
would devote their young children upon the altar of 
God to the holy cause of evangelizing the world, the 
lesson would never be forgotten. 

An eminently useful clergyman in one of our 
large western cities has furnished the writer of this 
Essay with the following testimony to the fidelity of 
parental instruction. He says : '' My mother was 
a pious woman. My earliest recollection of her is 
connected with my standing at*her side, Sabbath 
afternoon, to learn from her lips the catechism, before 
I could read. 

" When I first began to indulge a hope of forgive- 
ness and acceptance with Christ, she thus addressed 
me. 

" ' My son, when you were a child I dedicated you 
to God. I gave you away wholly to him, and now 
if you wish to consecrate yourself to his service to be 
a minister or a missionary, I give my full consent. 
If God calls you to go to the other side of the globe, 
I shall not oppose it.' I had never before thought 
of it. But the idea that my mother had thus early 
devoted me to God, so impressed my mind that 
within one month I had determined, by Divine aid, 
to enter the ministry." 

May God multiply the number of such mothers. 
Oh ! that the children of the church and covenant 
had such mothers as the mother of Samuel of old 
and the mother of Samuel J. Mills, — mothers, who 



16 PRACTICAL EVAXGELISM, 

a? they watched then* infant slnmberSj and guided 
their infant steps, would consecrate them on God's 
altar to the work of practical evangelism. 

2. The want of a thorough ecclesiastical training 
is another cause. 

The last direction of the gi'eat Shepherd to Simon 
Peter was, " Feed my lambs ! " The wise and faith- 
ful under-shepherd has no greater responsibility than 
that of takins: care of the flock over which the Holv 
Ghost has placed him. How many shepherds and 
elders have discharged this solemn duty with the 
charge of Paul to the elders of the church at Ephe- 
sus before them, " Take heed, therefore, unto your- 
selves, and to alf the flock over which the Holy 
Ghost hath made you overseers." 

Doctrine and duty ever go hand in hand, in the 
pastor's study and in the pastor's life. That shep- 
herd who does not attempt to divorce devotional 
feeling and moral character ; who unites properly and 
scripturally the doctrinal and practical^ will feed the 
flock, and secure a symmetrical character. Alas ! 
for the perfection of Zion and moral power of the 
army of Jesus, this has not been sufficiently done ! 

The doctrines of the Gospel must be truly, fully, 
and faithfully preached as the foundation of all prac- 
tical religion. But too often have we forgotten that 
while the truth must be preached it must be prac- 
tised also, — that while the child of God is ortho-^ 
dox, he must be to the world a living illustration of 
the truth, that while he is rooted and gi'ounded in the 
faith, he must be a "living epistle known and read 
of all men." 

We fail in the proper development of Christian 



OE BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 17 

character if we have not nourished the lambs, if we 
have not instructed the ignorant, strengthened the 
feeble, guided the erring, controlled the strong, or de- 
veloped the immature. 

The strength of Zion is small, if, with patience 
and gentleness, we have not fed the flock of God. 

Here it should be stated that many defects in 
Christian life are to be traced to a defective ministrc:^ 
Hon of the luord. The method and style of preach- 
ing has not uniformly been sufficiently adapted to 
quicken and develop the church, and convert sinners. 
Sparkling essays and learned exegesis we have had ; 
dissertations upon abstract ethics and concrete doc- 
trines, and the externals of Christianity we have 
had. Good and great sermons embodying any 
amount of truth — models of sermons in their gen- 
eral arrangement, comprehensiveness, symmetry, and 
beauty, we have had. 

But have they not too often been without heart or 
life or salvation to the hearer ? They have had in 
them too little exposure of sin and of condemnation, 
— too little exhibition of Christ and of pardon, — too 
little of that close, practical, and earnest appeal 
which rouses the conscience and affects the heart. 

We have not come from the altar of God with 
the " live coal " upon our lips, and cried,'' Wo unto 
them that are at ease in Zion ! " 

Too often^ we merit the terrible criticism of Dr. 
Mason upon the sermon of a young clergyman : — 
" Its arrangement is good, its logic clear, and its lan- 
guage forcible, but it lacks one essential thing to en- 
title it to be called a Gospel sermon — it has too little 
of Qmst in it.^^ 

2* 



18 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

The great and precious doctrines which exhibit 
God in his holiness, and sin in its deformity, and the 
law in the extent and spirituality of its demands as 
a schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ, have not 
been preached with sufficient clearness and fidelity. 

This defective ecclesiastical training must be 
traced in part to the fact that many pastors, espec- 
ially in our cities, have larger fields than they can 
cultivate well. This is partly their misfortune, for 
" the harvest is plenteous and the laborers are few," 
but it is also their fault. It is to be feared in this 
age of sharp denominational competition that some- 
times pastors are tempted to preside over a larger 
household than they can rule well. 

Too anxious for their own popularity, and not 
without that vanity which feeds upon "crowded 
houses," they have in some cases assumed a load 
which they cannot carry. 

Some pastors have in their communion, under 
their special instruction, and for whose immortal 
interests they are accountable, from five hundred to 
one thousand souls, with a coiTcsponding proportion 
of the ungodly. Upon the ministry of some pastors 
there wait every Sabbath from two to three thousand 
hearers. The " tallest arch-angel " before the throne 
could not faithfully guide and train and develop 
such a congregation. 

Others, again, who have smaller congregations are 
ambitious to obtain larger ones, and often leave a 
small but important, for a more imposing and re- 
ponsible position. " They know not what they do," 
for the spiritual and eternal interests of the smallest 
congregation might well task all a pastor's energies 



OK BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 19 

and prayers. In this temptation, and for want of 
laborers, sometimes necessity, to occupy more ground 
than we can well cultivate, must be seen, without 
doubt, one cause for defective Christian character. 
The pastor's labor is diffused and not concentrated, 
the field half cultivated yields a corresponding crop, 
and the disappointed husbandman should not be 
amazed to find " thistles instead of wheat." 

Another cause of this radical defect in Christian 
character, is too low a view of the nature of religion 
and the true mission of the church. 

The standard of holy living would not be so low, 
the church would not so often hang her harp on the 
willow, and the Gospel banner would not go trailing 
in the dust, were it not that Christians have forgot- 
ten God's definition of religion, and substituted 
something else. 

May God forgive us, if with the Bible in our 
hands, and Jesus before us, we have erred upon a 
point so vital. 

True religion includes that inward piety by 
which God is acknowledged and loved, and the 
largest benevolence and purest charity exercised with 
reference to our fellow men. There can be no re- 
ligion without these. A religious life is one of prac- 
tical GODLINESS, in which the whole being of man is 
consecrated to God. He is wholly, not in part, on 
the Lord's side. Religion with him is not a profes- 
sion merely, but a life. His physical, intellectual, 
and spiritual powers are developed and solemnly set 
apart to the service of his God. He feels most in- 
tensely that he is " not his own, but that he is bought 
with a price." 



20 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

We have lost sight of the true mission of the 
church. We have lost sight of Calvary and Olivet, 
and the ascending Saviour, and those words of high 
and holy import, no longer stir up our souls like a 
battle trumpet, " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature." 

We have forgotten that our absorbing business is 
to make known the plan of salvation ; to win souls 
to Christ, to evangelize the nations, to become the 
disseminators of God's word, and the almoners of 
God's bounty to the world. In a word, the true mis- 
sion of the church is to do good. In such a day of 
sad forgetfulness of our true work, the rebuke of Cot- 
ton Mather is in point : — 

" Though the assertion fly never so much like a 
chain shot among us, and rake down all before it, I 
will again and again assert it, that we might every 

one of us do more good than we do I am not 

uncharitable in saying, I know not that assembly of 
Christians on earth which ought not to be a Bochim 
in this consideration." 

But the question may be asked, how could such 
views of the nature of religion, and of the position 
and mission of the Redeemers church so extensively 
prevail ? I answer, because there are so many un- 
converted churcli-members, — so large a number, in 
all probability, who have never " passed from death 
to life." Who have embraced religion as something 
that will save them, rather than purlfij them ; who 
are relig-iouSj but not g^odlf/, for selfishness has not 
been annihilated. 

Five classes of persons have thus been introduced 
into the external communion and fellowship of 



on BIBLE CJEmiSTIANITY. 21 

saints, who cannot truly form a part of that " glori- 
ous church not having spot or wrinkle, or any such 
thing." 

First. Those who have been introduced through 
the influence of ecclesiastical education and moral 
trainings and who naturally consider themselves 
members of the church, without any such radical 
change of heart as the Saviour intended when he said, 
" Except a m.an be born again he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." 

Second. Those who have prematurely entered 
the church through the influence of excitement^ and 
whose religion is that of mere sympathy and emo- 
tion, unproduced by the Spirit of God, and unac- 
companied by any settled principle of action. 

Third. Those who have been dragged in through 
the unholy ambition of unprincipled ministers, or the 
lust of a morbid denominationalis7n^ — an ambition 
which places personal fame before the honor of God, 
and the welfare of souls ; and a party zeal, which 
would " move earth and heaven to make one prose- 
lyte." 

Fourth. Others again from worldly gain^ some- 
times for political purposes, have entered the exter- 
nal fold, and assurned the holy vows of allegiance to 
God, and with true Christians have pledged a hol- 
low-hearted covenant, oyer the sacramental bread and 
wine. 

If there be one class of ecclesiastical reprobates, 
under whose pernicious example and w^ithering influ- 
ence the church of the Redeemer groans more than 
any other, this js the class. " Have not I chosen you 



22 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

twelve, and one of you is a devil ? " " They went 
out from us, but they were not of us." 

A fifth class are those who are truly self-deceived ; 
who once thought they were Christians, but are 
now convinced they were not ; who through tem- 
perament, or false instruction, or mental habits, have 
mistaken " good frames '' and spasmodic zeal for 
that deliberate choice of God, as the chief end and 
portion of the soul, which is the beginning of " the 
kingdom " in the heart. 

4. Another cause for these defects so common 
and radical, is the lamentable decline of revivals^ of 
great purity and power. Pure revivals, under God, 
are the great instrumentality by which the truth is 
enforced and perpetuated upon the heart and con- 
science of the church. Give us revivals from God, 
and the " powers of the world to come " are present 
realities, and faith, indeed, " is the substance of 
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." 
Give us revivals such as the great Head granted to 
the apostolic church, and such as marked the era of 
Whitfield, the Tennants, and Edwards, and the 
wilderness puts on new and living beauty, immortal 
verdure springs up in the desert ; the religion of the 
cross becomes a living impersonation of the Divine 
mind, and the church of the living God, in her 
rapidly augmenting moral power, "becomes clear as 
the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army 
with banners." 

But let revivals decline, and there will be unbelief, 
insensibility, darkness, death, mildew, and famine. 
The standard of piety will go down. There will be 



OR BIBLE CmilSTIAJsriTY. 23 

few comparatively to cry, " In the name of our God 
will we set up our banners ! " 

The true position of the child of God, and the 
high mission of the church will be forgotten. The 
line of demarcation between piety and policy will in 
the end become more dim. The spirit of the world 
will creep into the church. The foundations of the 
rio:hteous will be shaken. The benevolence of the 
church will no longer be quickened into new life. 
The young men, with holy hearts and self-denying 
zeal, will no longer crowd into the gospel ministry, 
saying, " Here am I, send me." Zion will languish ; 
her foes will exult. The ^^ ground will become dry ; " 
" the fruitful field a wilderness : " " great fear will no 
longer fall on every soul." Men will " make void 
God's law," and on " every side the wicked will be 
exalted." 

Such unquestionably has been the result of the 
decline of revivals, upon the proper development of 
Christian character, and the power of the church of 
God. 

5. Another cause of these defects is furnished in 
the temptations and tendencies of the agCi It is an 
age of unparalleled activity, - — an age of great pros- 
perity, tempting to forgetfulness of God, in which 
multitudes are making haste to be rich, — in which 
the prayer of Agur is forgotten, " Give me neither 
poverty nor riches," — an age of speculation and 
commercial daring, where the motto on every lip is, 
" nothing venture, nothing have," — an age of com- 
promise between might and right, — an age of 
"^^ lower law " policy, — an age of demagogueism, 
and political legerdemain, in which old landmarks 



24 PKACTICAL EVANGELISM. 

are ruthlessly obliterated by men of vaulting am* 
bition seeking popular appiausej— an age in which 
appeals are made to the worst feelings of our nature ; 
when cupidity, lust, and power carry av/ay the weak 
and unstable, and frighten the timid into unmanly 
silence, — an age in w^hich we too often are tempted 
to rely on forms and ceremonies, more than upon a 
living faith, and substitute denominationalism for 
Gospel evangelism, — an age of outward reform, to 
promote which we too often rely more upon external 
pressure and human agency, than upon the Divine 
word and Holy Spirit. 

Nov/, before this spirit of the age, the Christian 
has too often bowed down. Terrified at the frowm 
of the king, and the heat of the furnace, he has 
bowed the knee to the image on the plain of Dura. 
Before these temptations sharp and strong, and well 
planned, he has, alas ! too often fallen, forgetting the 
warning, " Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, 
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking 
whom he may devour." 

The Christian's principle has been diluted with 
policy. His faith has been supplanted by sight. 
The inner life ha-s been neglected. His character 
has been marred. His influence destroyed, and the 
Redeemer's kingdom retarded. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MODEL CHAEACTER. 



"But grow up into him in all things.'' — Epli. 4: 15. 

" I LIVE, YET NOT I, BUT CHRIST LIVETH IN Me/*^ Gal. 2 I 20. 

Men have always had their models. The youth- 
ful politician, just entering that arena where so many 
trip and fall to rise no more, has his model. The 
lawyer, the merchant, the artist, each has his model, 
either some real person in the past or present, or 
some imaginary character enthroned in his ideal 
world. 

So the Christian, in deciding upon any course of 
action, or in the general regulation of his conduct, is 
apt to look around for an example. "Whom shall I 
follow? what is my standard? are questions often 
asked. 

In apostolic times it was said, " I am of Paul ; I 
am of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ." 
Eminent saints in the exercise of some Christian 
grace, now stand before the minds of many as the 
true model of Christian character. Some have taken 
Wesley, some Leighton, some Payson, some Page, 
some Mi-s. Edwards, as their standard of Christian 

3 (25) 



26 PKACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

excellence. Whatever may have been the trait of 
character in which some distinguished saint excelled, 
and which having had peculiar attractions for peculiar 
minds, it has become a model on which it was 
another's highest ambition to mould his ovv^n char- 
acter. 

When Jeremiah Evarts died, it was a common 
remark among the churches and even among un- 
godly men, '' If we all do as well as he did, we 
shall do about right!" Well for this dark world 
that such a luminary ever arose! 

Doubtless we should be better Christians, and 
better qualified for our great mission if we more 
nearly resembled Evarts, or Bunyan, or Howard, or 
Brainard, or Dr. Scudder. But we should not then 
be as good as we might be, or as we ought to be. 
None of these men, or any others, are to be taken 
as our model. 

All artist, ambitious to excel, seeks for no common 
daubs, but seizes upon the best models of the old 
painters. If you wish to build a boat, or a house, or 
create a statue, you look about for as perfect a model 
as you can find. If, then, you are about to form a 
character that shall live when the stanchest ship 
which ever rode the waves shall he worm-eaten in 
the dock; that shall stand, when the strongest foun- 
dations shall give way ; that shall endure when every 
statue shall have crumbled beneath the touch of 
time ; and when even the world shall have passed 
away, you must not be content with an imperfect 
model. A perfect one is presented to us in the 
Bible, — not obscure and undefined, but distinct as 
life, with every limb and lineament so strongly 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 27 

marked, that we have the model Christian directly 
before us. 

The first thing that strikes us in beholding the 
New Testament model, is, that he is a reneived 
man, " If any man be in Christ he is a new 
creature," This is the first grand feature, the very 
substratum of his character. It is the rock on 
which the spiritual edifice is built. Without this 
there is absolutely nothing on which to predicate 
Christian character. You may foolishly try to erect 
your house, but it is built upon the sand. An un- 
converted man, ever so well trained, ever so moral 
and amiable, cannot develop a model New Testa- 
ment character. 

But the Christian modelled after the New Testa- 
ment pattern, is not merely or mainly a theoretical 
one ; he is eminently a practical Christian. " The 
finest theory never yet carried any man to heaven." 
Religion is something more than " notions," " opin- 
ions," or " articles of belief." It is a principle of spir- 
itual life that fills the soul and regulates the conduct. 

The grand truths of revelation relating to the 
atonement of Christ and the redemption of the 
human soul, are of but little moment unless they 
have a practical bearing on human life. 

That Clnistian, therefore, who combines in his 
character and life the truest theory and purest prac- 
tice, approximates the most nearly to the New 
Testament model. In other words, there will appear 
in his character, a profound harmony between faith 
and works, — faith the ground of pardon ; good 
works the evidence of it. The one the offispring and 



28 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

exponent of the other; always together; working 
inwardly and outwardly. And no Christian char- 
acter approximates the New Testament model, in 
which this harmony is not preserved. 

In a word, no man can successfully engage in the 
Christian's great v/ork of practical evangelism, with- 
out a well-balanced character. He must be armed at 
all points, and develop all his strength. He will 
have need of it all. 

With an emphasis which ought to startle us in 
these days of supineness, Jesus once exclaimed, 
" Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much 
fruit." " So shall ye be my disciples." The assur- 
ance is not that the Father will be glorified if we 
bear little fruit ; it reads, " that ye bear much fruit ! " 
That is, every physical, mental, and spiritual power 
of the Chistian must be developed, and directly em- 
ployed in zealous labors to extend the Redeemer's 
kingdom and save souls. Let no man dare to be 
content with his evidence of discipleship, unless he is 
bearing much fruit Oh! how dreadful will be the 
sentence upon some of us, who continue unmindful 
of the words of Jesus : '' Henceforth let no fruit grow 
on thee forever ! " 

" Who went about doing good," is Peter's testi- 
mony of Christ. 

How sublime is the life devoted entirely to " doing 
good to all men, especially to them who are of the 
household of faith." And no life is modelled after 
the New Testament pattern that is not marked in 
this particular — a life devoted to doing good. This 
must be true of every Christian's life in whatsoever 



OR BIBLE CHBISTIANITY. 29 

sphere God may have placed him. There is no 
negative Christian character. 

There is no one question which a ransomed child 
of God should oftener ask himself, than " What can 
I do — what more can I do for my Redeemer, in 
establishing his kingdom? " I dare not be idle when 

" A charge to keep I have, 
A God to glorify/' 

What ! do we hear some indolent child of God ex- 
claim, " I have nothing to do ! " Nothing to do ! 
when the whole world is lying in wickedness ; when 
millions are perishing for the bread of life ; when 
despotism and oppression are abroad ; when the 
earth is filled with violence and blood; when the 
church of God has not put on her strength, and 
when the laborers go not forth into the great harvest 
already white for the reapers ! Nothing to do ! when 
the man of sin and the false prophet are gathering 
their armies for the last battle ; when the onset is 
already sounding, and the champions of truth and 
error are meeting, with the shock of an earthquake, 
and lances are shivering to the gauntlet! Nothing 
to do ! when infidelity and unrighteousness. Sabbath- 
breaking and intemperance and profanity and oppres- 
sion breathe their pestilential breath over all that is 
pure and holy, leaving mildew and famine in their 
train ; and when upon these waves of death the 
young men, the hope of our land, are swept from our 
sight forever! Nothing to do ! when your own chil- 
dren — children of prayer, of the covenant — wax- 
ing bold in sin, join arms with the foes of God in 

3* 



30 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

an unholy crusade against the doctrine of the cross ; 
when Satan and all hell are leagued to stop you in 
your journey to Mount Zion, and even now are rain- 
ing darts upon your shield ! 

Fuller once said, " He need not complain of too 
little work who had a little world in himself to 
mend." It will keep some of us intensely busy till 
we die to be found ready and waiting for the 
appointed time. 

The New Testament model is one marked by 
intense devotion and untiring energy. Such is the 
spirit breathing through all the New Testament, and 
it utterly repudiates the feeble and sickly character 
of the present age. Hear its language ! " Wist 
ye not that I must be about tny Father's business ? " 
" God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." " Brethren, I count not my- 
self to have apprehended ; but this one thing I do, 
forgetting those things which are behind, and reach- 
ing forth unto those things which are before, I press 
forward to the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus." 

A complete Christian, modelled after the New 
Testament pattern, is one who in the sphere appoint- 
ed him, discharges his whole duty in the fear of 
God ; who silently bears his cross and watches unto 
prayer ; who at all times, and on all occasions, hears 
the voice of God and obeys ; who uninfluenced by 
personal ease or the temptations of the world, or the 
fear of man, boldly discharges his duty, holding 
himself personally accountable to no one but Al- 
mighty God. 

The true Christian man has a life to live, not 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 31 

merely to enjoy. Without drawing back, or halting 
between duty and inclination, for with him inclina- 
tion and duty go hand in hand ; he steadily carries 
out the grand aim of his life. The time past of his 
life has sufficed him for spiritual bondage and im- 
pulsive manifestations ; he is now, with all his heart, 
on the side of the Lord. It is no half-way service to 
him. His body, intellect, and heart are there. His 
influence, his property, his time, his fame, and his 
friends, he consecrates, deliberately and with a glad 
heart upon the altar of God. And when that is 
done once, it is done forever. The cost has been 
counted, the decision made. With an intelligent 
choice, with all the consequences before him, in time 
and eternity he has taken God for his portion. He 
is fixed. His business is to serve God. 

It is a character in which there is a high and abid- 
ing sense of Individuality, No disciple in New Tes- 
tament times was lost in the crowd. He felt that 
he formed an integral part of the church, — that he 
was a living member of a living body. Each one 
stands forward in his ov/n person, and is often men- 
tioned by name, and the good he did specified. 
Paul thanks Christians by name ; calls them his 
fellow laborers, and when they died, and the Chris- 
tian band wept over their graves, they could point to 
this and that good work which they had done. 

Each Christian felt that he was one of the "called," 
and that he was " commissioned." He had no idea 
of shrinking from his duty, nor of measuring his 
benevolence by that of another. He felt that he 
himself had a work to do, and that he must in his 
own person give account to God in the great day. 



32 PRACTICAL EYAXGELISM, 

This high sense of individuality is absolutely essen- 
tial to the character of a Bible Christian. 

The character of the true Bible Christian is also 
distinguished by a high and holy sense of siibmis- 
sion to the Divine will in all things. He is the 
Lord^s to be used just as God pleases, and just where 
he )3leases. 

Chrysostom, once the bishop of Constantinople, 
and afterwards driven into exile, persecuted and 
despised, died away from all the splendors of the 
capitol, and all the comforts and honors which he 
had enjoyed, uttering his favorite motto ^oxa ru Oeu 
navTibv evEKEv^ " Glory to God for all things.*' 

Such a character was modelled after the New 
Testament pattern. '* Rejoice evermore ! " " In ev- 
ery thing give thanks! " Be not only resigned and 
submissive, but cheerful and thankful. Give God 
glory in all things, and for all things. In all circum- 
stances and trials, in all joys and sorrows be thank- 
ful ! For the sunshine, for the clouds ; for the ap- 
probation of men, and for their wrath and per- 
secution, give God thanks ! Thank him for the rod, 
and the furnace, and the tempest ; for if you are his 
child, it is a proof of his love and of his purpose to 
purify and polish you for a glorious setting in his 
crown. 

Such a man will lose himself in Christ.* He will 

* By this, nothing is meant that shall be construed as at all incon- 
sistent with the principle just laid down. The idea that a genuine 
child of God, called to the vineyard to work, and with a sanctified 
will and holy zeal, rousing up all the powei-s of the indi^'idual man 
to do his Father's will — is after all, a mere machine, passive in 
the Divine hand, simply to be acted upon, rather than to act with 



OR BIBLE CHEISTIAKITY. 33 

live in him, for him, and with him ; will feel that he 
absolutely belongs to him ; is a part of him. He will 
cheerfully give up any thing and every thing that 
may hinder the Redeemer's kingdom in the earth. 
He will " cut off a rignt hand or pluck out a right 
eye," if it stand one iota in the way of his usefulness. 
He will " become all things to all men that he may 
win some." 

But superadded to all this and consistent with it, 
no Christian man can arrive at the fulness of the 
Gospel stature, without corresponding earnestness. 
He is ransomed and pardoned. He stands on the 
Rock, with the new song of " the great multitude 
that no man can number." He must be humble, 
but he must be enthusiastic also. He must be in- 
tensely awake ; with all the susceptibilities of his 
renewed nature aroused for the lost. 

Let such enthusiasm burn in the heart of one 
pastor, and of one church. Let them all speak the 
truth in warning sinners. Let them from the fulness 
of their souls address their fellow men, and God only 
can tell the result. Moral emotion is like all other 
emotion, contagious, and such a flame of Christian 
zeal and love in one church, will extend its light and 
heat to surrounding churches. 

Such sanctified zeal in promoting the cause of 
Christ is demanded in order to the full development 
of the Christian man ; demanded by the grand doc- 
trines of which his life is to be the best exponent. 
By the condition of the sinner and the state of the 

an intense personal energy, is altogether visionary, and unscrip- 
tural. And yet there is a most vital sense in wluch the New 
Testament model includes a self-renouncing character. 



34 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

human mind in view of the truth ; by the terrible 
earnestness of the sinner's great adversary ; by all 
the motives of the Gospel ; by all the facts of proba- 
tion ; by the powers of the world to come ; by the 
love of Christ; by the condemnation of the law; by 
death ; by heaven and hell; — by all these, he is to be 
in earnest. 

We have already intimated that there have been 
many excellent models in New Testament and apos- 
tolic times, and in modern days ; and we should be 
far holier, happier, and useful Christians, if we imi- 
tated them more closely. If we had the boldness 
and firmness of Peter, the love and sw^eetness of 
John, the open-hearted candor of Nathaniel, the 
martyr devotion of Stephen, the intense missionary 
zeal of Paul, the every-day practical religion of Dor- 
cas, the intense Christian affection of the disciples 
who laid down their necks for Paul, the moral cour- 
age of Luther, the self-abasement of Brainerd, the 
holy freedom and active spiritual joy of Payson, the 
spirit of practical evangelism, the every-day ardor of 
winning souls to Christ which has rendered the 
name of Harlan Page immortal, the inner life and 
contemplative piety of Mrs. Edwards, the devoted 
self-denial of Harriet Newell, — if we resembled all 
or any of these, well indeed would it be for the church. 

But no one of these presents to us a perfect model, 
in which appear all the characteristics we have been 
feebly delineating. In the life of Christ, alone, we 
have that model. Here it is all clear and luminous. 
Here is the great Sun ; the rest are revolving satellites. 
Brilliant they may be, but only through light bor- 
rowed from this sun. 



OR BIBLE CimiSTIAlSriTY. 35 

It was said of Ignatius, " that he carried about 
Christ, with him in his heart." Bishop Cranmer on one 
occasion greatly desired the preferment of a young 
clergyman, and gave as his reason this testimony of 
his character, " Nihil appetit, nihil ardet, nihil som- 
niat, nisi Jesum Christum." He seeks nothing, de- 
sires nothing, dreams of nothing but Jesus Christ. 

What an example is that of Christ! In the aim 
of his life, how noble, — in the rule of his conduct, 
how pure and uncompromising, — in his condition 
of life, how contented, — as a friend, how true and 
sincere, — in his sorrows, how patient, — in his joys, 
how calm and serene, — in his consecration to his 
work, how entire and constant, — in his interest for 
souls, how tender and faithful, — in his teaching, how 
earnest, — in his spirit of prayer, how importunate, — 
in his spirit of forgiveness, how God-like ! 

Brethren in Christ ! here is our model. There is 
no other. Let us hold it up before us ; and while 
we wonder and admire and adore, with holy rever- 
ence, let us aim, with firm trust in God, to be like 
him ; and pray for that time when " we all with 
open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the 
Lord," shall be " changed into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord." 

If such Christians were common, what a trans- 
formation would there be in individual lives ! What 
" lowliness, and meekness, and longsuffering, and 
forbearing one another, and prefening one another 
in love," would there be ! What efforts ^' to keep 
the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace ; " w^iat 
brotherly kindness, what charity, and faith, and hope, 
and knowledge, and steadfastness, and zeal ; what 



36 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

Christian heroism and prayer; what heavenly-mind- 
edness ; what activity in benevolence ; what medita- 
tion ; what freedom from the dominion of sin ; what 
light; what joy ; what a complete putting off of the 
old man; what a complete putting on of the new 
man. 

How different will such a man look and talk and 
act. How decided he is ; how truthful ; hov/ earnest ; 
how meek before God ; how bold before men ; what 
an intense energy breathes in every action he puts 
forth ; w^hat a moral power he wields ! With 
him, faith is faith, and life is life. He does not 
exist merely, he lives — lives fast; he crowds more of 
the good deeds which spring from love into one year, 
than other men do in a dozen. With him all the doc- 
trines and all the duties of the Bible, and all the graces, 
and all the rewards of the Christian are realities. 
He knows that sin exists, and that there is a Saviour. 
The apostasy and the recovery to him are not ab- 
stract truths in theology, but facts which nerve him 
for action. To him the new birth and the renewed 
life ; the sanctified heart and the vital union of the 
living body with the living head, are truths of intense 
meaning. To him the conflict of the Christian sol- 
dier is not romance, nor his reward ideal. He feels 
that he is growing up from childhood to full man- 
hood. He knows that he is pressing on to the sum- 
mit of the mount. His doubts and fears are there- 
fore removed, and his hope is indeed " an anchor of 
his soul, sure and steadfast, entering into that within 
the vail." 

The church needs such Christians. Her complete- 
ness depends on the perfection of individual char- 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 37 

acter. The glory of the Bride, the Lamb's wife, 
when she shall arise and shine, and when the king 
shall make her ready in royal apparel for the wed- 
ding, depends upon the completeness and pmity of 
each individual saint, who will "" com.e to the meas- 
ure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 

If you w~ould stop the mouths of gainsayers, 
arrest the infidePs sneer, and thus w4pe away the 
reproach from Zion ; if you would see her arise from 
the dust and put on her crown, and take the sceptre 
and " look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, 
clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with ban- 
ners," — then you must be a Bible Christian. 

The ivorld needs such Christians — " men of God 
thoroughly furnished for every good work, that they 
may prove what is that good and acceptable and 
perfect will of God; growing up into the stature of 
the fulness of Christ Jesus " In this world of imper- 
fection, of monstrous developments, of inconsist- 
encies, how refreshing to see such a character. 
Would to God we had many such Christians. How 
would the angel fly through the midst of heaven, 
and that age of Millennial activity and holy obedi- 
ence, and rejoicing be hastened, " when a nation 
should be born in a day." How would the face 
of society be changed ; how soon would justice and 
equity fill the earth. Peace would prevail ; and the 
nations would learn war no more. Then would be 
realized the picture of the author of the " Course of 
Time" — 

" The prisonhouse, where chained felons pined, 
Threw open his ponderous doors, let in the light 
Of heaven, and grew into a Church, where God 

4 



38 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

TTas worshipped. None were ignorant, selfish none. 

Love took the place of law ; where'er you met 

A man, you met a friend, sincere and true. 

Kind looks foretold as kind a heart within ; 

Words as they sounded, meant ; and promises 

Were made to be performed. Thrice happy days ! 

Philosophy was sanctified, and saw 

Perfections that she thought a fable, long. 

Pevenge his dagger dropped, and kissed the hand 

Of Mercy ; Anger cleared his cloudy brow, 

And sat with Peace ; Envy grew red and smiled 

On Worth ; Pride stooped, and kissed Humility ; 

Lust washed his miry hands, and, wedded, leaned 

On chaste Desire ; and Falsehood laid aside 

His many folded cloak, and bowed to Truth ; 

And Treachery up from his mining came. 

And walked above the ground with righteous Faith ; 

And Covetousness unclinched his sinewy hand, 

And opened his door to Charity, the fair ; 

Hatred was lost in Love ; and Vanity, 

With a good conscience pleased, her feathers cropped ; 

Sloth in the morning rose with Industry ; 

To Wisdom Folly turned ; and Fashion turned 

Deception off, in act as good as word. 

The hand that held a whip was lifted up 

To bless ; Slave was a word in ancient books 

Met, only ; Every man was free ; and all 

Feared God, and served him day and night in love." 

^PolloJc, Book 5. 

Such, briefly, as we conceive it. is the New Testa- 
ment model of Christian character and life. The 
only one which it is safe for the chm'ch of God to 
follow. My brother in Christ ! sufl'er me to inquire, 
is such a character yours ? It ought to be. You 
are a member of that church which the Saviour in- 
tended to '' redeem from all iniquity," that church 
through whose holy example under God this guilty 



OE BIBLE CIIPJSTIANITY. 39 

world is to be evangelized. You are a pardoned, 
ransomed sinner ; you are an heir of glory, and you 
ought to have such a character. And will you bear 
with me while I add, if you would be happy and 
useful, if you would share in the labor and rewards 
of the great work of restoring the lost, you imtst have 
such a character. 

My brother, kneel with me at the altar of God, 
and together let us offer this one petition : — Blessed 
Saviour ! let thy perfect example be mine ; let the 
Bible standard of religion be mine : let the New 
Testament model of Christian character be mine. 
Oh ! grant that I may copy that example, reach that 
standard, and attain that model, and thine shall be 
the glory evermore. Amen ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

FAITH. 



'^sovr faith is the substance of things hoped foe, the evi- 

dexce of things not seex/' 
" These all died ix faith, not hating received the promises, 

BUT hating seen THEM AFAR OFF, ANT) WERE PERSUADED OP 
THEM, AND EMBRACED THEM, AND CONTESSED THAT THEY WERE 
STR-VNGERS AND PILGRIMS ON THE EARTH." — Heb. 11:1 and 13. 

A CHUPiCH-MKMEER ODce said to his pastor, " Why- 
is my faith of so little comfort to me, so often 
obscured with clouds — of so little use as a guide to 
others — and of so little power in the great work of 
Evangelism ? '' 

" My dear brother.'' replied the pastor, " one rea- 
son is because your views of faith are rather theo- 
retical than practical^ rather metaphysical than sim- 
ply scriptural, — your faith is rather an article of 
your creed, than an essential element of your life. 

'• Another reason is, you are influenced by sense : 
the present world is near, the future far off. Your 
faith does not make the powers of the world to come 
living realities ; you do not live as one who passed 
every day as though ' the next hour the judgment 

(40) 



PRACTICAL EVANGELISM. 41 

trumpet was to sound.' Your faith is not ' the sub- 
stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
seen.' 

" In a word, your faith does not actually overcome 
the world — subordinating things earthly to things 
heavenly — rising high up to the throne — actually 
eclipsing the things of time and sense; and your 
trust in God is not an absorbing interest in the 
Redeemer's kingdom — enabling you to ' count all 
things but loss that you may win Christ.' " 

We propose, then, to define and illustrate that faith 
— so essential as an element of Christian character in 
the great luork of practiced evangelism* 

We shall do it principally by reference to the faith 
of those immortal worthies whose names and deeds 
God has perpetuated by the pen of inspiration. 

It is a mournful fact that the Christian church has 
departed so far from the ground of simple patriarchal 
and apostolic faith, — that it is so seldom now an 
energizing principle, lifting its possessor above the 
dust and strife and clouds of earth, to realize the 
fruition of his faith. A faith so universal in the days 
of Bible heroes, when Daniel was cast to the lions' 
den, and the three children into the furnace, is so sel- 
dom witnessed now — that we are tempted to repeat 
the significant question of Jesus, " When the Son 
of Man Cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ? " 

One great difhculty in defining faith arises from 
the "poverty of language." We have no one word 
embodying all the Bible would include in those exer- 
cises of the mind and heart denominated, /a?7//. We 
may call it belief, or desire, or trust, or depend- 
ence, or submission, or obedience — yet our defini- 

4* 



42 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

tion is deficient, inasmuch as faith includes all 
these. We may adopt the imposing language of the 
schoolmen and define faith to be the " subjective 
appropriation of the objective work of Christ ; " but 
what meaning of practical importance has such a 
definition to the great body of simple-hearted Chris- 
tians ? 

Again, we may adopt another common definition, 
that faith is an influeiicing beliefs including not only 
a full assent of the understanding based upon proper 
evidence, but such a cordial reception of the truth in 
the heart that it regulates the life. It certainly im- 
plies an entire consecration of the believer's whole 
being to the service of God. Some one, I believe it 
is Edwards, has well said of saving faith, it includes 
" the whole soul entirely believing, cordially embrac- 
ing, and humbly and joyfully depending upon the 
revelation of Jesus Christ as our Saviour." 

But after all there cannot, I apprehend, be found 
a more complete and satisfactory definition of faith 
than that given by the apostle in the eleventh chap- 
ter of Hebrews. And all other definitions whether 
metaphysical or practical, are felt to be right or 
wrong as they coincide with this or differ from it. 

" Now faith is the substance of things hoped for ^ the 
evidence of things not seenP This is short, clear, and 
comprehensive. And it is the only place where any 
formal definition of faith is attempted in the New 
Testament. 

What are the ''things hoped for" and "things not 
seen?" For these expressions are synonymous, the 
latter part of the sentence being mainly a repetition 
of the first — giving it intensity. Now what are the 



OR BIBLE CHKISTIANITT. 43 

" things hoped for and unseen," of which faith is 
both the substance and the evidence ? They are un- 
questionably God, and his favor ; Christ, the spread 
of his kingdom and his mediatorial glory ; heaven 
and its inhabitants, employments, and enjoyments. 
All these are unseen by mortal eye, but are " hoped 
for " and longed after with an intense desire. Ac- 
cording to the apostle, though you are in the flesh 
still you walk by faith, and your faith is to you a per- 
fect demonstration that the world for which you hope 
is not unreal and shadowy, but real and substantial; 
you know that it is so, jou. feel that it is so. 

When they stoned Stephen, calling on the name 
of the Lord Jesus, this first Christian martyr litde 
heeded the stones crushing his body out of the sem- 
blance of humanity, so real was his vision of the 
opening heaven and the Son of Man at the right 
hand of power. Cranmer held his right hand in the 
flame until it shrivelled away, and the physical pain 
was swallowed up in the exceeding glory just before 
him. So Paul endured perils by land and by sea, 
and among false brethren ; was subjected to cold, 
hunger, nakedness, and sword, until with emphasis 
he could say, "for thy sake we are killed all the day 
long." Yet by the power oi faith these things were 
all subordinated; for really to the man of strong 
faith there are no trials, no crosses, no sorrows, for 
heaven is at hand, and he " endures as seeing him 
who is invisible." 

" Men in general look at sensible objects. The 
things which are seen limit the sphere of their ob- 
servation. But faith shifts the scene. As to the 
most momentous objects it puts us in a new world. 



44 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

The believer looks not at the things which are seen, 
which are temporal ; but at the things which are not 
seen, which are eternal. He fixes the eye of his 
mind upon them. In the high spiritual sense, he 
sees them. They stand before him as realities." 

Faith, then, is something more than a theory. 
It is a principle of action, the energizing element 
in spiritual life, wiiich purifies and ennobles, until 
the temporal is lost in the eternal, and he lives, and 
acts, and sings, and prays, and works, — as if heaven 
were already opened to him. 

In the lives of the illustrious dead — of Bible 
memory — of those memorable in the history of the 
church in all ages, we have examples of the power 
of faith as a conquering principle. And from which 
it will appear how simple and how grand a thing is 
faith; that it is simply "taking God at his word." 
Every example of the wonderful faith here recorded, 
illustrates the idea of simple^ unwavering trust in the 
word of God. 

What else had Noah on which to build his faith ; 
what else was his faith but a full conviction that 
every word which God had spoken would come to 
pass ? Such a conviction led to entire confidence ; 
nay, it was a perfect demonstration that the event 
would take place which had been threatened, — nay, 
such a faith was so clearly the evidence of things 
not seen, that he anticipated the one hundred and 
twenty years probation, and lived all the while 
as if the time was at hand. What an energizing, 
all-conquering principle that- must have been, which, 
without once faltering could have sustained him so 
long. It led him simply to trust God, for there was 



OE BIBLE CimiSTIANITY. 45 

nothing else to keep alive his faith. There was 
nothing in reason or analogy on which he could fall 
back as a sort of bulwark or strengthener of his 
faith. " No similar event ever had occurred,'' and 
there were no premonitions in the heaven above or 
in the earth beneath, nothing in philosophy or 
chemistry which would lead him to expect such 
a calamity in the natural order of things. All 
he had to rely on was the simple,^ naked luord of 
God. 

God had said that he w:ould destroy the world 
with a flood of waters, and he simply and fully be- 
lieved him, — so fully that he had no more doubt of 
it than if he already heard the rattling thunder, or 
saw the opening of the windows of heaven. His 
faith outlived time. It was too strong for the cavil- 
lings of philosophy, — it was not to be influenced 
by " wit, raillery, or sarcasm." He simply believed 
God and obeyed him. 

In the great work of peactical evangelism, it is 
all important to revive and perpetuate the faith of 
this patriarch. 

The things which try our faith are manifest, 
namely, — the time that must elapse before the uni- 
versal spread of the Gospel. How many centuries 
have rolled by, and Infinite Wisdom alone can tell 
how many more may elapse ! 

The gigantic nature also of the luork. The evan- 
gelization of one nation, what a work ! How far re- 
moved from the millennial standard of holiness is 
the most Christian nation on earth ! 

Look, too, at the hostile array which Gog and 
Magog are marshalling against the army of Christ. 



46 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

See the gigantic opposition to be encountered in 
individuals, societies, and nations, with regard to 
laws, literature, manners, and customs. Who can 
calculate the difficulties in the way of the conver- 
sion of one single sinner? How long has a praying 
mother to wait for the salvation of an erring son, 
until " hope deferred maketh the heart sick? " How 
long had that noble band of missionaries in the 
Sandwich Islands to wait, after " sowing in tears," 
until they were permitted to "reap in joy?" Ah! 
with an emotion which only a man of faith can feel, 
the church shall sing, — 

" Let those who sow in sadness wait 
Till the fair harvest come ; 
They shaU confess their sheaves are great, 
And shout the blessings home ! " 

No matter, then, how gloomy and forbidding may 
be the prospect, nor how slowly the light may break 
in, nor in how many organizations the enemies of 
religion may combine to oppose the truth, — no mat- 
ter ! The word which we believe hath told us, " He 
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall 
have them in derision!" Our faith is to us "the 
substance of things hoped for," and in spite of 
opposition, of ridicule, of wrath, we can and will 
still shout, " Great is truth, and will prevail." 

Our God has assured us that he will " give the 
heathen to his Son for an inheritance and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for his possession," and we 
take him at his word. We shall work on and pray 
on through all darkness and all storms, " sowing 
beside all waters," and having no more doubt of the 



OK BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 47 

issue than if we already heard the millennial anthem 
swelling out on every breeze, "the kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
his Christ" 

I never rise from the perusal of the history of 
those old Bible heroes, without being overwhelmed 
with admiration of their character, and humbled in 
view of my own limited attainments. 

In the history of Abraham there are two impres- 
sive illustrations of the power of faith. One when 
he obeyed God in going out from his country into a 
strange land, four hundred miles through an inhos- 
pitable desert. The other, when he was commanded 
to offer up his son. In this latter trial especially, we 
see the nature and strength of his faith. In the 
thing which he did, we have one of the clearest 
illustrations of faith in the Bible — that kind of 
faith to which the eye of the church must be directed 
in the great work of "going into all the world to 
preach the Gospel to every creature." 

In his old age, after he had waited long for the 
fulfilment of the promise concerning Isaac, when his 
heart was beginning to cling to " the lad," when he 
began to feel that the wonderful prophecy concern- 
ing his posterity was to be fulfilled, — God suddenly 
says, " Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, 
whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Mo- 
riah, and offer him there for a burnt oflering upon 
one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." 

Now considering the time and the circumstances, 
and the nature of the command itself, we can con- 
ceive of no event better calculated to try most 
effectually his faith in God. lie was positively en- 



48 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

joined to take his son of promise — the future head 
of a gi'eat nation, his only son, whom he loved, and 
dehberately offer him up for a burnt offering! Let 
us imagine tlie case V\^ere ours. With the same 
amount of faith in God v\'e now have, how would 
we have acted ? How eagerly we would have 
looked about for objections or reasons for delay. 
How many Abraham might have raised: — " What, 
offer up my son, my only son ? Has it not been said, 
in Isaac shall thy seed be cahed ? Surely I have 
mistaken the voice of God.*' No ! Abraham does 
not hesitate. He had often heard God's voice; he 
knew it now, and he determined with a simple ti'ust 
in God, which challenges our admiration, and in- 
vites our imitation, to obey, — accounting that as 
his duty was to obey, God would fulfil his part of 
the promise, and, if need be, he " could raise him 
from the dead.'' 

This was faith, — an aU-conquering principle, 
— overcoming natural affections, subduing rebel- 
lious thoughts, inducing sweet submission to the 
will of God, anchoring down with eternal confi- 
dence on the truth that the Creator will do all things 
right, — enabling the Christian to do his duty, though 
the fondest ties are riven, and the fairest prospects 
blasted. 

Verily I this, and this only is the kind of faith 
by which spiritual heroes are made, — the faith 
which is "the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen," — the faith with which 
every child of God must be endowed, who would 
have any substantial part in the great work of prac- 
tical evangelism. 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 49 

Such a faith will enable the church to go forward, 
though Champion and Campbell and Lowry and 
Williams fall on the battle field, just when by the 
providence of God they are prepared to work. 

In the example of Moses, we find one of the most 
remarkable triumphs of faith on record. Surely no 
one could have had less sight to walk by ! What 
could have induced him to give up the treasures of 
Egypt, and cast in his lot with a nation of slaves ? 
There was no earthly reason to hope that, trodden 
down and.ground under the heel of their oppressors, 
the Hebrew nation ever would be free — a great, 
happy, and renowned people, before whom the 
heathen nations should flee. Nothing, surely, on 
which all this was to rest, but the simple word of 
God, — -and because God had said it, it was to 
Moses as if it had really transpired* He took God 
at his word, — " He chose afflictions with the people 
of God." " He had respect to the recompense of 
the reward." He went on, consecrated to this work, 
and " endured as seeing him who is invisible," — as 
if the eye of God was ever on him, and the voice of 
God ever uttering the promise in his ear. 

The fact that God had said he would bring his 
people, the descendants of Abraham, to inhabit the 
land promised their fathei's, was to Moses demon- 
stration absolute that it would be done. Such 
was the faith which was in him an abiding, all-con- 
quering principle — actually subordinating things 
earthly to those which are heavenly ! 

See how in each and all of these examples, faith 
was to them " the substance of things hoped for, 

5 



50 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

the evidence of things not seen," — the demonstra- 
tion of the thing itself. 

The history of the flood, after the event, did not 
more certainly fix it in the mind of Noah, than did 
faith, based on the simple word of God, one hun- 
dred and twenty years before. 

When Abraham arose at the command of God, 
to leave his kindred and go into an unknown land, 
he was just as sure of it for an inheritance to his 
posterity, as if he had stood on some eminence, 
nine hundred years afterward, and gazed* upon the 
splendid realm of Solomon. 

When at the age of forty, Moses voluntarily 
abandoned the luxuries of the court of the Pha- 
raohs, for self-denying and noble identity with the 
people of God, he had no more doubt that he was 
the appointed and successful leader of that band, 
and that they would be brought to the land which 
God gave to Abraham, than he had on the top of 
Pisgah. 

In all these examples, faith was to them as the 
voice of God, — the demonstration of the event. 
There was no doubt in their minds, not the shadow 
of one, that God would do all he had said. It was 
the simple triumph of the principle of faith. 

All this their faith led them to endure. Their trust 
in God was so firm that it could not be shaken. They 
"had respect unto the recompense of the reward." 
They " looked forward to a city which had founda- 
tions." They were enabled by their faith to rise 
above tiie world, and the things of earth were alto- 
gether subordinated to the things of heaven. 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 51 

In these degenerate days, — these days of feeble- 
ness and despondency, of doubt and fear, — these 
days of manikins, this faith of the old Bible heroes 
needs to be revived to secure entire consecration in 
the practical work of winning souls to Christ. 
The disciples once said, " Lord, we have left all and 
followed thee." And once again, when at the call 
of friendship and humanity, he ventured into the 
presence of his enemies who were thirsting for his 
blood, the voice of his disciples was, " Let us also go 
that we may die with him!'' It is only under the 
all subordinating power of such faith, that the child 
of God, in the great work of practical evangelism, 
will shrink from no sacrifice. Such a faith had 
John Milton Campbell, a personal friend of the 
writer of this essay. With him, the salvation of 
souls and the conversion of this world to God was a 
passion ; and it became so through the power of his 
faith. From the moment when, arrested in the field 
where he was ploughing, by a stray leaf Vv^hich some 
one of God's angels had dropped in the furrow, 
until he was borne away from the shore of Africa, 
up to the city of his God, — he never lost sight of 
his work. Such a passion for saving the lost up- 
springing from his all-conquering faith, made his 
short career sublime. It rose superior to natural dif- 
fidence ; it annihilated gigantic obstacles in his way; 
it ushered him into the Gospel ministry ; it sent him 
like an admonitory angel through the churches to 
enkindle a corresponding love for the dying; audit 
finally gave him the victory over the bitter disap- 
pointment of an early death. 

" The guard dies — it never surrenders ! " was the 



52 

noble reply of one of Napoleon's generals — a reply 
which has rendered the body-guard of the emperor 
immortal. It is such an instance of devotion which, 
at times, makes physical bravery almost sublime. 
Sach a death upon the field of battle, whether in 
righteous defence of freedom, or in despotic invasion 
of foreign territory, has been rendered immortal in 
story and in song. There is something attractive in 
a soldier's death, — in the pomp of military parade, 
— the enthusiasm of martial music and banners 
waving, and the rising sun flashing from the points 
of a hundred thousand bayonets — in the shaking 
tread of embattled legions — the furious charge — 
the roar of cannon and musketry — that makes the 
soldier lose sight of principle, and gives him as stout 
an arm and as bold a heart in a bad as in a just 
cause. And he will die as willingly in defending 
the wrong as the right. Yes, the soldier may die 
when in the headlong charge of infuriated men, his 
enthusiasm is kindled to madness. He may die, 
when for country and fame, and when if he fall, it is 
with loved companions in arms — a weeping nation 
bending over his grave, and his name perpetuated on 
monumental marble. 

But in the death of such a man of faith as Camp- 
bell, I read a sublimer lesson. It was the remark 
of an eminent American statesman, that " men must 
die, and circumstances change, but principles were 
immortal." The man who shrinks from no self- 
denial, danger, or death, from principle — is the man 
who dies nobly ; who, rather than turn aside from 
the great work to which God has called him, will die 
young, die upon heathen ground, die alone. Ah, my 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 53 

brother ! swift was thy course, and short thy work, 
but thy mission was not in vain, and from the wings 
of thine all-conquering faith, have fallen into the 
bosom of the church precious seeds, that will spring 
up and bear a glorious harvest for the judgment-day. 

This faith of the old heroes of Bible memory 
must be revived, if we would perpetuate the spirit of 
effectual prayer. Faith and prayer are indissoluble, 
— the tree and the fruit. What power and holy dar- 
ing are in these words ! What a watchword for the 
Redeemer's church in all time to come ! Upon the 
Waldensian banner, which three hundred years ago 
was crimsoned with the blood of those firm protest- 
ers against the corruptions of the papal Antichrist, 
and which now waves its broad folds over their fif- 
teen peaceful and flourishing parishes in the valleys 
of France, was written, " Lux lucet in tenebris," 
A light shineth in the darkness^ was a motto which 
for its appropriate and scriptural beauty has chal- 
lenged the admiration of the world. There, in that 
secluded spot — away down in the rugged defiles of 
the valleys of Piedmont, in the centre of a darkness 
the most profound, has that motto been the rallying 
watchword. And the heroic defender of a pure Prot- 
estant Christianity, with joy kindling in his eye, 
and Jesus enthroned in his heart, has placed his 
hand upon the brow of his stripling boy, and pointing 
to the flag waving over them, exclaimed, " Lux 
lucet in tenebris! " 

But in the work of practical evangelism, the 
noble mission of winning souls to Christ, another 
watchword is ours, — faith and prayer. Faith un- 
faltering, and prayer " w^ithout ceasing," — faith 



54 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM. 

which reaches its hand behind the clouds and takes 
hold upon the throne, and prayer with its intense 
energy, upKfting a worm and giving him power with 
God. 

Who can refuse a hearty amen to the prayer, — 
"Almighty Saviour! in the church -militant, aug- 
ment the power of faith and prayer." If such un- 
faltering faith in God were common, the church 
would be almost omnipotent for good. Then would 
shine the light of the uncorrupted word, the light of 
a purified church, the light of the Divine presence, 
and the nations of the earth would walk in that 
light. Then the pilgrim would no longer toil on 
through the darkness and cry, " Watchman, what 
of the night?" for there would be no night. Then 
the temple shattered and blasted by sin, would be 
rebuilt in symmetry and glory, and the light of 
God's face would play upon its summit. " Then 
the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, 
and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold." Then 
over all this darkened world of ours shall the light 
stream, and Golgotha become a vast Beulah, and 
the angels of God shall wing their way and answer 
back the chorus of the redeemed, " Now is come 
salvation and strength and the kingdom of God and 
the power of his Christ." " Even so come, Lord 
Jesus." 



CHAPTER V. 

SELF-DENIAL REQUIRED BY CHRIST, AS ESSENTIAL 
TO DISCIPLESHIP. 



" If any man will come after me, let him dent himself, and 
take up his cross daily and follow mb." — luke 9 i 23. 

Theke is no one doctrine and duty more impor- 
tant in the great work of Practical Evangelism, than 
that of self-denial. The work of redemption demand- 
ed the greatest act of self-denial the universe ever saw. 
It was promoted through the patriarchal age, and 
the era of the prophets, and through apostolic times, 
by great self-denial, — and by self-denial is the work 
to be completed. As the great Master " pleased 
not himself" but laid aside "the glory which he had 
with the Father before the world was " and endured 
for our sakes, the " reproaches of them that re- 
proached," so every one who would be a follower of 
Christ and a co-worker with him must understand 
and practise the same spirit. This duty of self-denial 
is expressed in the most forcible language in the fol- 
lowing passages — the exact and proper import of 
which it is our purpose to explain and enforce. " He 
that loveth father or mother more than me is not 

(55) 



56 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

worthy of me, he that loveth son or daughter more 
than me is not worthy of me." " And he that 
taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not 
worthy of me. If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself and take up his cross daily and 
follow me. If any man come to me and hate not 
his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and 
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he 
cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth -not 
bear his cross and come after me cannot be my dis- 
ciple." 

These passages are thrown together because they 
are alike in their language and import, and by their 
repetition show the impression which the great 
teacher wished to make on the disciples' minds. I 
almost dread to look at them, to let their full mean- 
ing come out, and to draw the tremendous inference 
which they suggest. The expressions are certainly 
clear. God grant that they may be engraven in 
characters of fire on every Christian heart — for 
until their exact import is fully felt by the Chris- 
tian church, the wheels of evangelism will drag 
heavily. 

The statement of this doctrine by the Saviour is 
certainly as emphatic as it well can be. The self- 
denial here taught is not theoretical but practical. 
It is not the poetry of self-denial. Nor again, is it a 
problematical duty announced, but it appears in the 
life — it underlies Christian character, it is absolutely 
essential to discipleship. " If any man would come 
after me let him — that is, he must — deny himself 
and follow me." This is the statement of a generic 
truth, peculiarly applicable to the apostolic church, 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 57 

but addressed to all Christians in all time ; for 
though the form of self-denial may change, the prin- 
ciple is the same. And the inference here unques- 
tionably is, that no Christian can be placed under 
such circumstances that it will not be both his duty 
and privilege to " deny himself and take up his cross 
daily." 

With different Christians in different conditions, 
and under dissimilar circumstances, the form of self- 
denial may change. The poor and rich, the obscure 
and great, fill different spheres, and each has his ap- 
propriate cross to bear. 

The writer of this essay w^as once acquainted 
with an excellent Christian woman, one who pro- 
fessed to have the interests of souls at heart, who 
was troubled and in great bondage because she 
was tempted to furnish her house in as costly and 
extravagant a manner as her fashionable sister over 
the way. In the same city lived a poor widow who 
had to support and educate her children by her 
needle, and whose sensitive and motherly feelings 
were wounded, when she saw her daughters' cheeks 
redden with shame at the neglect of more fashion- 
ably dressed children. But she resisted the tempta- 
tion, and as usual put her hardly earned mite into 
the Lord's treasury, not forgetful of that word, " If 
any man would come after me, let him deny himself 
and take up his cross daily and follow me." 

True self-denial, as we have seen, implies bear- 
ing the cross daily, from principle. It is not alone 
through the impulse kindled by some warm ap- 
peal, that you are suddenly to be aroused to the 
importance of denying yourself — something ! but 



58 PRACTICAL EYAXGELISM, 

you are to be always ready to make the sacrifice 
whenever demanded ; you are to seek for opportu- 
nities to test the genuineness of your discipleship. 
" Let him follow me," said the Saviour. Jesus went 
about doing good, from principle, so must L He en- 
dured hardship and privations, from principle, so 
must I. He denied himself, and bore his cross from 
principle, so must I. Nay, if there be within my 
heart that all-conquering faith which is at once the 
product and seal of Divine love, I shall hail with 
joy the privilege of bearing my cross daily, and fol- 
lowing '- Him through evil as well as good report." 

Hence, the principle implies a supreme love for 
Christ; a love so utterly consuming all other pas- 
sions that no sacrifice is deemed too great to make. 
How em])hatic is the Saviour's language, '^ He that 
loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy 
of me; he that loveth son or daughter more than 
me is not worthy of me. If any man come to me 
and hate not his father and mother, he cannot be 
my disciple." Of course the Saviour meant rela- 
tively, not really, that is, lie should love them less. 
The expression is as strong a one as could be em- 
ployed to designate the supremacy of the Christian's 
devotion to his God and Saviour, so complete that 
it swallows up every other. 

During a seminary vacation the writer witnessed 
a striking illustration of the fact that such self- 
denial is not always mere sentiment. He was 
at the father's house of a young brother who had 
consecrated himself to the foreign missionary work. 
Together we had kneeled around the altar of 
prayer, and had retired to our room. When the 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 59 

son with uncontrollable emotion bowed his head 
upon his hands, and cried, " Here are my aged par- 
ents, O God, how can I give them up and leave 
them alone, for a foreign field ? " In a few mo- 
ments he was heard to murmur, " Give them up ! 
Lord Jesus, what didst thou not give up for me! 
He that loveth father and mother more than me is 
not worthy of me," and he looked up with a calm 
and smiling serenity peculiar to himself, — the strug- 
gle was over — -he had obtained the victory. 

In the lives of Cha77ipion^ who with an ample for- 
tune entered upon the missionary work, and sup- 
ported himself mainly by donations to the board, — 
of Dr. Scudder^ who abandoned an honorable and 
lucrative profession, for the same self-denying work, 
— of Gordon Hall, Pliny Fish, Mrs, H, Winsloiv, Mrs. 
Van Lennep, Dr, Grant, and all that band of noble 
spirits ; and especially in the lives and heroic exam- 
ple of the converts of our missionaries in India and 
the Turkish Empire, are to be found some of the fin- 
est specimens of Gospel self-denial upon record, — a 
self-denial springing from the intensity of their love. 

While penning this paragraph, a devoted and 
self-denying home missionary on the banks of the 
Wabash, one whose scholarship would fit him for 
almost any position, stepped into the writer's study 
and with deep emotion remarked, " My children's 
education has been neglected till they are getting so 
old that I cannot neglect it any longer, and how 
they are to be educated I know not. I heard one 
ministering brother, whose salary is no better than 
mine, and he has only a wife and child, while I have 



60 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

a large family, say, that he had sent his wife and 
child east to her parents, and he intended to ' leave 
them there until he could see his way throngh^ The 
truth is, with the present prices and support, we need 
a good deal of faith, of which we have very little. 
Peay for us. Why do not the home missionaries 
need the prayer of God's people as well as the 
foreign ? We have very few Aarons and Hurs, and 
for want of them we have become weak and faint." 

The opening of the " Books " will alone reveal 
how many of such noble spirits under the motive 
power of this love have forsaken all that they have 
to preach Christ to the perishing. May God, in in- 
finite mercy multiply them a thousand fold! 

The scriptural idea of self-denial is developed in 
these clear and forcible statements of the Saviour, 
and when He has made true discipleship dependent 
on it, it is strange that the doctrine is so little under- 
stood and far less practised. It is, in short, nothing 
less than the full surrender of the whole physical, in- 
tellectual, and spiritual man to God. It is a perfect 
self-sacrifice upon the altar of evangelism. The 
disciple considers himself — not as his own, but the 
Lord's. He knows and rejoices in the fact that he is 
bought with a price. He feels in his inmost soul 
that there is nothing in his power to give which he 
would withhold — there is no cross which he would 
not bear. There is no idol he would not for Christ's 
sake cheerfully dethrone. On his body, mind, and 
heart he writes, " this is the Lord's," — on his houses, 
lands, and possessions, " this is the Lord's." If I 
have any property, or influence, or honors, I hold 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 61 

them only as God's steward. My time is his, my 
friends are his, every thing I have is his. I use it for 
Him, I give it up to Him. — 

" Were the whole reahn of nature mine) 
That were a present far too small ; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 

Demands my soul, my life, my all.'* 

In view of the scriptural idea of self-denial will 
appear in their true light some practices in the 
church of God, of those in good standing, among 
our best Christians, who, according to this rule, if 
not thrown out of the pale of true discipleship, at 
least have lived far below the Gospel standard. The 
writer here would disavow any disposition to sit as 
judge upon the church of God, and dictate what 
they shall eat or drink or with what they shall be 
clothed. He erects no standard of his own, to which, 
with unscriptural dogmatism, he expects all others to 
conform. He acknowledges but one rule, unam- 
biguously stated in these words, — " Whatsoever ye 
do, do all TO THE GLORY OF GoD." Vv'ith that word 
before him, he purposes to speak of certain facts as 
they exist, and leave it to the enlightened con- 
sciences of all Christians, in the fear of God, to draw 
their own inferences and make their own decision. 
The writer is aware of the difficulty of arriving at 
any considerable degree of accuracy in determining 
the amount of self-denial in the church. It is some- 
times difficult to determine what the real ability of a 
church is. He feels the truth of a remark made by 
a brother, high in the confidence of the churches, 
whose work has been approved of God, and whose 

6 



62 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

heart promptly answers to the sentiment of this 
essay, — * " It is not/' said he, " what a man owns, 
but also what a man owes, that must be taken into 
the account. Some persons very high on the tax 
list, are perhaps hardly solvent. Others who are 
low on the list, may own property out of the county, 
stocks in other States, etc., which do not appear on 
the tax list. Then again a person's tax is not at all 
a test of his income, or of his personal ability to 
contribute." Yet wiule it would be almost impos- 
sible to arrive at the particulars, developing the real 
ability of our churches — there can be no question 
but that there is great wealth in them, and that our 
benevolence is not commensurate with it. 

A few facts, selected almost at random from the 
Vv^'iter's diary, must suffice, — facts which he is afc 
liberty to publish, being restricted, by the parties to 
whom they relate, to silence only with regard to 
names, places, and dates. 

There is an elder in a Presbyterian church, who had 
a handsome income, and real estate to the amount 
of $25,000, who permitted the Home Missionary 
Society to sustain his minister, to whose support he 
contributed $15. 

In one of the larger churches in a western State, a 
devoted and earnest agent of the American Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions presented 
the claims of a dying world. A wealthy member, 
who had just made $10,000 in a trade, gave him 
grudgingly a pittance so miserable the writer is 
ashamed to state it, while a poor widow in the same 
church, dependent upon a small school for her liv- 
ing, dropped into his liand a two and a half dollar 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 



63 



gold piece, with tears of joy, that she had some- 
thing to give for the-dying. 

The writer was informed by a fellow-laborer in 
the great vineyard, that there was a member of his 
church, worth $20,000, who had for years past con- 
tributed nothing to the support of the Gospel at 
home, and nothing to the support of foreign mis- 
sions, save 25 cents, one year ! 

"I cannot really afford to give any more!" how 
often do we hear Christian ladies exclaim, whose 
personal jewelry amounts to from $50 to $100 and 
upwards, and who, on an average, do not contrib- 
ute $1 a year to evangelize the world. There are 
professedly Christian women to be found in all our 
churches, unwilling to deny themselves some trifling 
ornament, or article of apparel, when the great mis- 
sionary boards of the day are turned away with the 
cold reply, " Charity begins at home ! " 

How many Christian young ladies pay $7 for a 
Maltese collar, deck their bonnets with costly Mara- 
bout feathers, and sport Chinese carved pearl or 
ivory fans, while to the ambassador of God, pleading 
for starving millions, they reply, '' I am too poor to 
give ! " Oh ! tell it not to those who have already 
"crossed the flood," that the enlightened Christian 
mothers in American churches are so ambitious that 
their daughters should eclipse in costly apparel, the 
daughters of other Christian mothers, that they can- 
not hear their toiling, self-denying sisters from India 
and Africa, and from the far West when they cry, in 
the name of Christ, " Send us means to prevent our 
schools from being disbanded." 

How many Christian ladies there are, who spend 



64 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

annually, more money upon green-house plants and 
flowers than the whole amount contributed by the 
church to which they belong, to the cause of missions. 

There are young men in our churches, lawyers, 
merchants, clerks, and mechanics, who do but little, 
if any thing, for the gospel at home or abroad ; who 
spend for cigars and pleasure-riding one half as 
much money as the whole amount contributed by 
the church to which they belong, to evangelize the 
world. Oh what a reckoning will there be in that 
day^ for those who spend pounds upon their own 
lusts, and give the pence to God ! With what dis- 
may shall we look back from the bed of death, at 
the life of ease and self-indulgence which we have 
led. A world perishing, and we nothing to give! 
Professing to belong to that Saviour who has said, 
^' If any man would be my disciple, let him deny him- 
self;" claiming to be the children of that God who 
has said, "the silver and the gold are mine, and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills!" and yet doling out 
into His treasury a pittance so contemptible. No 
wonder that Dr. Nevins in his " Practical Thoughts" 
used this sharp language, " In my opinion there is 
nothing which lays the church more open to infidel 
attacks and contempt, than its parsimony to the 
cause of Christ." 

The writer once visited a Christian friend, who 
with some pride, and much apparent satisfaction, 
showed him his house and improvements. In both 
its exterior and interior arrangement, it was indeed 
a model mansion. And as he pointed to his costly 
mirrors, carpets, statuary and paintings, and singing 
birds and elegant conservatory and splendid turn-out, 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 65 

all upon the most approved style of the world, he re- 
marked, " Now this pleases me ; I believe I have 
about all I want, and am comfortably fixed at last" 
The writer went away sad, and could not forbear 
exclaiming to himself, "Ah! my brother! you are 
a professed follower of Him who had ' not where to 
lay his head ; ' does this look as if you were accus- 
tomed to deny yourself, and take up your cross 
daily? If one half of this money had been put into 
the Lord's treasury, to supply with the bread of Life 
the perishing millions of Africa, would you not still 
be as ^comfortably fixed' as was your Lord and 
Master — have as much inward peace, die as calmly, 
and have as good a hope of receiving the final ap- 
probation of Him who said, ' He that loveth houses 
or lands more than me, is not worthy of me ? ' " 

There is a prominent member of an evangelical 
church in an eastern city, who (the writer was in- 
formed) has spent quite $100,000 upon his private 
residence. And one of his pleas for such extrava- 
gance is that he is able to do it. " He made his 
money ; it belongs to him, and he has a right to use 
it as he pleases!" Now, according to this New 
Testament idea of self-denial, iteither of these prop- 
ositions is true. If he has acquired property, it is 
only because God has prospered the labor of his 
hands. What he has, does not belong to him, but 
to God, and he has no right to use it, but as God 
pleases. 

Now, when the world is perishing for the bread of 
Life, it is almost superfluous to ask, " Is such a use- 
less expenditure of money on the part of God's stew- 
ards for their own personal gratification, consistent 



66 PRACTICAL EYAXGELISM5 

with the character of a cross-bearing, self-denying 
follower of Jesus ? " Nay, for a professed Christian 
man is it honest ? Is it not using the money which 
God lent him, in a different manner, and for a differ- 
ent purpose from that specified in the loan? Is it 
not deliberate embezzlement ? It is not his ; not a 
cent of it ; it never did belong to him. He is only a 
steward, yet he deliberately and most lavishly squan- 
ders all but a miserable remnant upon himself, his 
family, his houses and lands, and even replies to 
God's messengers sent after his own money, to car- 
ry on his own work, " I have done giving? " 

In making such a record, the writer is not un- 
mindful of that word, " Judge not, that ye be not 
judged." Yet as a faithful witness for God, he 
must testify of that which he has seen. These are 
facts, milder than many that might have been 
selected; written not to herald to the world the 
shame of the church of God, but to " show the house 
of Jacob their sins." These things are said in sor- 
row. But so long as churches " keep back part of 
the price," so long as their benevolence at home 
and abroad is by no means commensurate with their 
ability, so long as domestic and foreign missions 
languish through our parsimony, so long as ease 
and luxury and self-indulgence come in successful 
competition with the claims of the Redeemer's king- 
dom, such facts must be proclaimed, and must star- 
tle many of us with reference to the foundation on 
which we have built our hopes for eternity. 

How many of these are among the number of 
those who " deny themselves and take up their cross 
daily ? Deny themselves ! what is there that they 



OR BIBLE CHBISTIANITY. 67 

Bee and crave which they do not obtain. " No mat- 
ter," say they, "if I want it and am able to get it, 
I will have it." Deny themselves ! not one thing ! 
There is not an article of apparel, not a piece of* 
household furniture, not a single sensual gratifica- 
tion which they will give up for Christ's sake, and 
for the world's salvation. Is this right? is this 
Christian ? A life of benevolence ! such a life is 
one of sheer selfishness — they live for themselves, 
toil for themselves, please themselves — the cause 
of Christ is not the one nearest theii' hearts. That 
principle of supreme love which is both the motive 
and the development of true Gospel self-denial, does 
not exist. 

Could we with the eye of Omniscience go through 
the church, how many should we find who gave up 
a single luxury, curtailed a single expenditure, re- 
duced a single establishment, abandoned a single 
comfort, or w^ere ever willing to forego a single en- 
joyment for Christ's sake and the Gospel's ? And 
this is our cross-bearing life — our self-denying life! 
when from our fulness the pittance we dole out, and 
from our indolence the toil we endure, absolutely 
costs us nothing ! " Wherefore I abhor myself, and 
repent in dust and ashes." 

Can it be that the great body of American Chris- 
tians practically ignore such words of the Great 
Teacher as these? " Freely ye have received, freely 
give." " He that hath two coats let him impart to 
him that hath none." " Sell all that ye have and 
give alms." 

" I have shown you all things how that so labor- 
ing, ye ought to support the weak, and to remember 



68 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

the words of the Lord Jesus — how he said, It is 
more blessed to give than to receive." 

May it not be that one reason why the American 
church has not prospered more in her foreign mis- 
sions, and has had no larger share of genuine revival 
influences, like the pentecostal season of outpour- 
ing, at home — is because we have not come up to 
the standard of Gospel self-denial. And at this very 
moment, with an emphasis never before equalled, per- 
haps, is God addressing us on this wise : — " Bring 
ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may 
be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, 
saith the Lord of Hosts, if I w^ill not open you the 
windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing 
that there shall not be room enough to receive it." 

Thank God, if there be now and then an ap- 
proximation to the standard which our Lord has 
furnished. Says Mr. Coan, of the church at Hilo, 
" We cannot thrive without giving. I preach one 
sermon a month on that subject, on the Sabbath be- 
fore the first Monday of the month. And we reap 
as well as sow. Our contributions for the last six 
months have averaged more than two hundred dol- 
lars a month. At our monthly concert in August, 
the collection was two hundred and forty dollars. 
Our people are poor, but giving enriches them. 
This is positively true not only in spiritual things 
but in temporal. The less they give, the poorer 
they grow, and the reverse. Whatever others may 
do, Hawaiians cannot afibrd to rob the Lord." 

Thank God, if there are some noble men in our 
churches to whom with truth this testimony from 
a pastor of one of our largest churches, may be 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 69 

applied, " Several of our gentlemen tithe their in- 
come for the Lord. One of my elders, now in a 
very flomishing business, with every prospect of 
great wealth, has fixed his stake down at the most 
moderate competency — never means to be rich, 
and gives all beyond his expenses, which are not 
large, to the Lord. Some of my wealthiest people 
are most active in Sabbath schools and in bringing 
the Gospel to the poor ; and in this way deny them- 
selves. In the measure of their liberality and per- 
sonal activity for Christ, there has been a decided 
advance within two years." 

" Though," adds the same pastor, " if the Spirit of 
the Lord Jesus dwelt in us more richly, where we 
now give hundreds, we might give thousands." 

The writer has a personal friend, a member of a 
weak church who has little or no income, in the 
most moderate circumstances, who by careful econ- 
omy has managed to pay, the past year, fifty dollars* 
for the support of his pastor, and fifty dollars more 
to the cause of missions. 

What a noble testimony is that which Paul bears 
concerning the churches in Macedonia : " Moreover, 
brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God be- 
stowed on the charches of Macedonia ; how that in 
a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy 
and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of 
their liberality. For to their power, yea, and be- 
yond their power, they were willing of themselves ; 
praying us with much entreaty that we would re- 
ceive the gift." Does this cheerful, prompt, and 
abounding liberality, a liberality up to and even 
" beyond their power," resemble the grudging parsi- 



70 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

mony which keeps God's missionaries on allowance ? 
Does it seem as if they had been accustomed to say, 
" We have done Grivins: ? " 

Surely the masses of Christians in these latter 
days are forgetting one cardinal principle in their 
religion, on this wise announced : " Ye are bought 
with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and 
in your spirit, which are God's." It cannot be that 
Bible reading Christians utterly reject the great prin- 
ciple laid down that they are God's stewards, and 
that all they have and are, they hold in trust as his 
" subordinate ao:ents.'* 

Surely, they who do not *• deny themselves," who 
are self-indulgent and covetous, have forgotten that 
there is such a passage as this in their Bible, " ye 
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though 
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that 
ye through his poverty might become rich ; '' and 
with such a glorious example of self-denial, they can 
still fold their arms and cry, *• too many calls," and 
" I have done giving." 

^Yhat a touching illustration of the nature of Gos- 
pel self-denial is fm-nished us by the evangelist, " And 
he looked up and saw the rich men casting their 
gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain 
poor widow ' casting in thither t^vo mites. And he 
said, of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow 
hath cast in more than they all ; For all these of 
their abundance have cast in unto the offering of 
God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the 
living that she hath." Those two little pieces of 
brass, equal in value to only two thirds of a cent, 
were more in proportion to her means than the mag- 



^ Oa BIBLE CHBISTIAKITY. 71 

nificent gifts of the rich, and of course more accept- 
able to God. It cost her something to give — it cost 
them nothing. She felt it — -it was a great self-de- 
nial to her for she gave all she had to live on, and 
trusted God to take care of her. But they gave of 
their abundance and felt it not And though their 
broad pieces fell clanking into the box and covered 
up the poor widow's gift from the eye of men, the 
eye of God was fixed on those two mites, and he 
smiled, and all heaven was brighter, for God and all 
the good love the cheerful, self-denying giver,' — 
" For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
according to that a man hath, and not according to 
that he hath not" " Verily I say unto you, that this 
poor widow hath cast in more than they all." 

Let all those Christians who are so anxious to 
" lay up in store against a rainy day," that they are 
afraid to give liberally and cheerfully, and trust God 
to provide for them, remember the poor widow 
and her two mites. Here we see that ^' it may be 
proper to give all our property to God, and to de- 
pend on his Providence for the supply of our daily 
wants." If we are poor and it will cost us a great 
sacrifice to give, we are to make the sacrifice and 
give. If we are rich, we are to give so largely that 
it will still require a great sacrifice on our part. We 
are to give in both cases according to our means, 
and in both cases till we feel it. 

But how few of the rich give until it becomes a 
self-denial, or a real cross ! The names of princely 
Christian donors are emblazoned upon the records 
of benevolent societies who have merely given as a 
charity a little of their surplus revenue for which 



72 PRACTICAL EVAXGELIS5!, 

they had no special use. and could spare without 
feeling it, and in the very act of giving often feel 
that they are throwing it av/ay I While hard-work- 
ing Christians who have toiled for their bread, and 
poor widows bring along their mites, the fruit of 
self-denial, baptized with tears and consecrated with 
prayer, and lay it on God's altar, and it is accepted, 
and they hear a voice, whispering, ^- If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his 
cross and follow me." 

Who of us, mj' brethren, are thus toiling for God? 
obtaining property, holding honors, and acquiring 
influence for God? Apostolic times have passed, 
but have self-denying Christians passed av»'ay with 
them? The martyr age is gone by — but is the 
martyr spirit fled with it ? Have we no Pauls will- 
ing for the Gospel's sake to endure " perils by sea, 
and perils by land?" Have we no Peters to cry, 
" Lord, we have left all to follow thee ! " Have we 
no churches ambitious with a holy emulation, to 
imitate the example of the Macedonian Christians, 
who in spite of their poverty and affliction, cheer- 
fully forced into the apostle's hands a gift even be- 
yond their ability ? Have we no widows with their 
two mites ? Have we no toiling, self-denying Lijdias 
looking after God's poor ? or are our Christian 
women too eager after gold watches, and ear-rings, 
and bracelets, and fashionable apparel, and conserva- 
tories, to hear the sobbing cry of God's little ones? 
Are our Christian men too absorbed in speculation, 
in joining house to house and land to land, to heed 
that word of Jesus, " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature ? " 



OR BIBLE CHBISTIANITY. 73 

O Mammon, Mammon, how long shall thy 
shrine be decked with Christian offerings, and the 
old and the young, the rich and the poor, unite in a 
holocaust on thy unholy altar! O Fashion and 
Ease and Self-indulgence, how long will ye w^eave 
your enchantments around the professed followers 
of Him who had not where to lay his head, and 
who said, " Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh 
not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MEANS OE ATTAINING A HIGHER STANDARD 
OE PIETY. 



" Search the scriptures." — John 5 : 39. 
*^ Take heed how ye hear." — Luke 8 : 18. 
"Prat without ceasing." — 1 Thcss. 5: 17. 
" Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the 
LORD of hosts." — Zech. 4 I 6. 

"I can do all things through CHRIST WHICH STRENGTH- 
ENETH ME."— Phil. 4 : 13. 

Often in the depths of personal meditation does 
the humbled disciple, amazed at the magnitude of 
the work to which he is called, and his unfitness for 
it, exclaim, " Shall I ever become a Bible Christian? 
A man strong in faith and hope ? who even in cross- 
bearing is a follower of Christ, — whose self-denial, 
the fruit of supreme love, staggers at no sacrifice, — 
whose life is a living epistle, — whose 'constant 
holiness,' like that of McCheyne, shall 'touch the 
conscience of many,' — who laboring with holy zeal 
to save the lost, can realize, with J. B. Taylor, ' how 
much better it will be to find in heaven a band of 
converts sent thither through one's instrumentality 
than to arrive alone,' — who is so absorbed in the 

(74) 



PEACTICAL EVANGELISM. 75 

triumph of the church, that with Henry Martyn he 
can cry out, ' O the transcendent glory of this tem- 
ple of souls, lively stones, perfect in all its parts, the 
purchase and the work of God ! ' Shall I ever be 
such a Christian ? '' 

That unusual trials before ns shall test our 
faith; unusual overturnings startle the church and 
the world, we must believe, if any thing at all can 
be predicated upon the signs of the times. Though 
we are unworthy of such a mission, and are alto- 
gether unfit with our present measure of faith, to go 
forth conquering and to conquer, yet through his 
church (feeble though she be) will the Redeemer 
work out the consummation of all things. 

If, then, I have come to the kingdom for a time 
like this, and am to be used in hastening on the day 
of God, when the whole earth shall be filled with 
his glory, it behooves me to be ready. And while I 
stand amazed at the magnitude of the work that 
seems to be crushing me, the internal work of per- 
sonal sanctification, and the external work of evan- 
gelizing the world, I hear a voice saying, " Not by 
might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord 
of Hosts ; " " Who art thou, O great mountain ! be- 
fore Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." 

In the wrestling " against the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world," every man in his own unaided 
strength is weak as an infant, but with the " armor 
of lii^ht" he is invincible. 



't^'- 



" Tliese weapons of our lioly war, 
Of what almiglity power tliey are." 

" The word is nigh thee, even in thine heart." The 



7(3 PRACTICAL EVAXGELISM, 

directions to the spiritual warrior are specific. The 
path pointed out is plain. The command to " grow 
in gi-ace " is not plainer than the method specified. 
The gift of the Son to redeem, is not more certain 
than the o:ift of the necessary meaxs to sanctify. 

It is proposed, then, to consider the means which 
God has appointed by vjhich ice may attain such a 
standard of gospel piety as ic ill fit us for the exigency 
at hand. 

My brother, would you attain that state of faith in 
God and holy living which will enable you to meet 
your obligations in this day, when the Sun of Right- 
eousness is rising to the meridian, — you must first 
understand fully the position you occupy, 

'• General.*' said a monarch to his favorite officer 
when he gave him a most important and perilous 
command, " I need not tell you that the safety of 
the whole army depends upon your valor.'' " Sire," 
was the noble reply, " my life is pledged to the 
sacred defence of this position ; I shall die, if need 
be, at my post ! " 

By your Great Leader, who gave the most illustri- 
ous example of self-denial, and who in his own per- 
son shrank from no peril, — you now occupy an 
eminence from which an ansrel miijht well shrink. 
Your first duty is to be sensible of it. There is an 
issue at stake of infinite moment. You will not in 
time nor eternity be able to measure it. The eyes 
of the world, of good and of bad angels, and of the 
great God, are upon you. " You are a city set upon 
a hill, that cannot be hid." 

In the second place, you must resolve to maintain 
your position. The answer of your soul to tempta- 



OK BIBLE CHBISTIANITY. 77 

tion from any source whatever, must be, '^ Get thee 
behind me ! " Your choice made once, is made for 
ever. That word of Jesus is ever before you, " What 
I say unto you, I say unto all — watch!" You must 
feel that supineness would be more perilous to you 
than sleep to a sentinel at his post. 

" My'mind is made up ! the troops will get ready 
to march in fifteen minutes ! " said the conqueror of 
Buena Vista, to his staff. With a decision more 
marked than this, must every Christian soldier who 
would be crowned victor in this war, exclaim, " My 
heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed ! " 

It is unnecessary to repeat the trite axiom, that 
nothing can be attained without effort ; and that 
both the effort and the good attained will usually 
have a relative proportion. If the effort be feeble, 
the attainment will be contemptible. This ought to 
be so ; for this position on the summit of the " Hill 
Clear," with a life of usefulness in the past, and the 
land of Beulah just before, is worth some hard 
climbing. We will not be wafted to that eminence 
" on flowery beds of ease ; " nor will we reach it by 
a feeble and sickly faith ; neither will the angel that 
bore off Habakkuk by the hair of his head, carry us 
up in his strong arms. " The kingdom of heaven suf- 
fereth violence, and the violent taketh it by force." 
With the man in the immortal allegory of the great 
dreamer, the pilgrim who would join that shining 
company in gold, must walk up boldly to the door 
of the palace and say to the man with the inkhorn, 
" put down my name, sir ! " and then he must draw 
his sword and cut right and left, and give blows and 
take blows, and thus with many a dint upon his hel- 



78 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

met, and many a blow upon his shield, pressing 
through the armed men, all scarred and bleeding, a 
voice clear and triumphant shall greet him, — 

" Come in — come in, 
Eternal glory tliou shalt win." 

If you would attain such an eminence in Chris- 
tian character, as would enable you to win souls, 
you must make it your business. Every thing else 
must be subordinate to this. Here is your work, 
your appropriate and chosen work, and whatever else 
may be neglected, you dare not be unfaithful in this. 
This word must ring in your ear, and burn into your 
heart, " Go ye out into the highways and hedges, 
and compel them to come in." There was a young 
man who had not for ten years entered the sanctu- 
ary. Over the usual and insincere plea, — " an in- 
consistent church," he was stumbling down to hell. 
A good brother had his eye and heart upon him. 
He never lost sight of him. He felt that he was in 
danger and must be saved. And while the village 
was blessed with a rich token of Divine gi'ace, after 
commending his young friend to God, approached 
him with deep emotion and invited him to go with 
him to the house of God. A sharp rebuff leaped im- 
pulsively to the lips of the young man, but he saw 
from the manner of his friend that he was in earnest. 
He paused a moment and replied, " I will go with 
you." He brought mM to Jesus. 

The negect of this duty is manifestly one reason 
why your faith is so dead and your piety so feeble. 
You do not come in contact with those things 
which would excite your sympathy and demand 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 79 

your earnest labor. You do not consider that by 
your side there walketh a man who " is condemned 
abeady, and the wrath of God abideth on him." 

Hence, you must make yourself more familiar 
with the condition of the ungodly among whom 
you dwell. You associate with them, in all the 
political, commercial, and social relations of life — 
you are drawn together by a community of interests 
— why should you practically disregard those gigan- 
tic interests which involve their future destiny ? 

If you would be fitted for your work as a practi- 
cal evangelist, you must appreciate the momentous 
work on which you enter. You must, in the light 
of revelation, make yourself more familiar wdth their 
condition, obligations, character, and destiny. You 
must also reflect that your opportunity of influencing 
and arresting them will soon be passed forever, and 
that in a very short time you will meet them at the 
bar of God. In this way you will best have your 
liveliest sympathies drawn out toward the impeni- 
tent. The more you dwell upon the condition of the 
Christless, without God in the present life, and with- 
out hope in the life to come, will your whole soul be 
stirred for their salvation. You see that they are 
lost and must be found, — that they are dead and 
must be made alive, — that they are out upon a 
stormy sea, without chart or compass or rudder, at 
the mercy of every billow, and in peril of immediate 
and eternal shipwreck. You cannot be quiet, you 
dare not sit still. With the muttering of such 
thunder in the sky you are constrained to seize hold 
of them as the angels did upon Lot and cry, 



80 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

" Escape for thy life ; tarry not in all the plain, 
escape to the mountain ! " 

I. First, and most preeminent of God's appointed 
means of promoting faith and holiness, is the Uving' 
ministry. 

Nothing is a substitute for this. Tract distribu- 
tion is good — colporteur efforts have been eminently 
blessed of God, and have brought living waters to 
many a thirsty one, and have polished many a gem 
for the Saviour's crown, but no instrumentality can 
supplant this. " Go ye into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature." " It pleased God by 
the foolishness of preaching to save them that be- 
lieve." " Preach the word." " For I was sent not 
to baptize but to preach the gospel." 

And it is only echoing a sentiment which is never 
called in question when we affirm that he who does 
not attend upon the living ministry cannot grow in 
grace. " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," 
was the direction of the greatest of all preachers, to 
the careless Jews. And upon the hearts of Ameri- 
can Christians favored with the best ministry 
since apostolic times, should break in thunder this 
same word, '• He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear." " The men of Nineveh will rise up in judg- 
ment against this generation," for they heard, be- 
lieved, and obeyed ; while too often the message of 
God's ambassadors is, to us, as though it had not 
been spoken. 

An important question might here challenge the 
attention of the American churches : why is it that 
with a ministry of from twenty to thirty thousand, 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 81 

with sanctuary privileges not surpassed by any on 
the globe, there is no more of that marked piety 
which we should naturally expect as the appropriate 
fruit? Multitudes of Christians, alas! that we must 
believe the vast majority of them within the sound 
of the gospel, seem to make no progress year after 
year. They have approximated no nearer to the 
New Testament model. They have no stronger 
faith nor higher self-denial. Their love for Zion 
is no more a passion, — their solicitude for sin- 
ners perishing around them is no greater, — and the 
claims of a dying world are no more keenly felt. 
Why this apathy under the living ministry? It is 
partly, if not in the main, owing to the fact that we 
have practically ignored that pointed caution of 
Jesus to the indolent Jews, " take heed how ye 
hear." 

Every man who hopes to attain this eminence in 
holy living, must listen to the preaching of the truth 
frequently^ not only occasionally but habitually. 
He must regularly feed upon the word for the health 
of his soul. If he only come to the sanctuary now 
and then, he will pine away under the ravages of a 
consuming spiritual famine. He will be feeble and 
tottering, and the smallest breath of temptation will 
upset him. 

He must hear the word with simplicity and godly 
sincerity. 

The plain and straightforward path in which our 
fathers have walked to heaven, needs a good deal of 
fixing up, that the young and progress-loving Chris- 
tians of our fast age may condescend to walk in it. 
And the ministry must spruce up, be more lively, 



82 PRACTICAL EVAXGELISM, 

and say a great many keener things, and strike out 
newer and more inviting paths. The old, plain, 
simple, gospel preaching and gospel hearing, are 
but little in vogue ; and any minister who holds 
on with old-fashioned partiality to the way of 
Christ and the apostles, is gravely lectured and 
set down as " behind the age " by the promising 
young men, who sit in the sanctuary not to hear the 
pure word, but to be galvanized with a little counter- 
feit electricity. 

It was noble testimony which Jesus bore concern- 
ins: Nathaniel. *' Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom 
is no guile." As if he had said, he is just what he 
seems to be ; one vrhose life in all respects corre- 
sponds to his profession ; there is not a particle of 
deceit about him ; you see in his open face, almost 
as in a min*or, the feelings of his heart. It is a clear 
stream, you can see to the bottom. There is no 
hypocrisy there — nothing unbefitting a true, simple- 
hearted child of God. 

Here is a sad want in our churches both on the 
part of our membership and ministry. Simple- 
hearted sincerity is almost an exiled virtue. There 
seems to be no place for it, and no use for it. The 
world is walking on stilts ; every thing, everybody 
is repudiating the age of plain, unpretending piety. 

We seem to have no children any longer. Even 
the enchanting simplicity of childhood is becoming 
a matter of history. The antiquary, curious after 
fossil remains, may find something of the kind in the 
age of Samuel the Prophet, in the time of Christ, 
and even down as far as the Puritan era. But 
we have children no longer. Deception, briskness^ 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 83 

double-dealing, shrewdness, and a pompons, swelling, 
bustling manner, are the traits that take now with 
men. And the Christian man too often feels that 
he must not be behind the times, that he must meet 
shrewdness with corresponding shrewdness, and if 
fashion and vanity and outward show are of better 
currency than open-hearted candor — why, the new 
coin must come into circulation. 

Any change is to be deprecated which is at the 
expense of simplicity of character. That open 
candor which is the index of a guileless man, -— 
that ingenuousness which scorns dissimulation, — 
that unostentatious piety which shrinks from parade, 
— that quiet, unobtrusive spirit which kept Mary at 
the feet of Jesus, to learn of him, should be revived. 

This departure from gospel simplicity and assump- 
tion of the shrewd, bustling, pompous style of the 
world, is not only manifested in the conversation 
and dress and manners of individual Christians, but 
it is seen in the extravagance of church architec- 
ture, of church development, and forms of worship, 
and demands upon the ministry. 

The writer would not constitute himself public 
censor with reference to these matters. But he is 
alarmed for the piety and moral power of the church, 
when such palpable departures from the spirit of 
primitive simplicity on a large scale everywhere 
abound. 

How important for the hearer to receive the truth 
with " the simplicity that is in Christ ; " to hear the 
word in meekness and love, — taking it as the plain 
message of God without equivocation ; and through 
th^ power of the cross plainly preached, to be trans- 



84 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

formed into a quiet Christian, " in whom there is no 
guile." 

He must hear the word with earnest attention and 
prayerful diligence. He must hear for his life. 
There are important issues at stake. The ambassa- 
dor of God is delivering a solemn message, under 
which the spiritual character of some hearer may be 
fixed for eternity. He must be earnest in delivering 
it, and it must be earnestly heard. In a short time 
speaker and hearer will stand before the throne, and 
the influence which the preached word has in form- 
ing a holy character, in increasing the power of 
faith and love, must be exerted soon. When the 
hearer is assured that every message must be a savor 
of death or of life, how important that he should 
hear with earnest and devout attention ! 

Marieite Gityon^ the young French shepherdess, 
when thirteen years old, came under the notice of 
Felix Neff, and by him was instructed in the Prot- 
estant religion. Her Papist parents sent her to the 
mountains to tend her flock, afraid of the influence 
of Protestant teachers upon her inquiring mind. 
When the eager child saw any one approaching 
along the rocky path, she hastened down and ac- 
costed him with the question, " Where he was 
from ? " If he replied that he came from some 
Catholic village, she suffered him to pass on without 
another word. But if he came from a Protestant 
town she detained him as long as she could, inquir- 
ing after the true way. Thus, as for her life, she 
heard the truth and treasured it up in a good and 
honest heart, and brought forth fruit at last an hun- 
dred-fold. " Go thou and do likewise ! " * 



on BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 85 

2. The Sabbath is one of God's appointed naeans 
of holiness. That Christian who would be emi- 
nently a man of God, for the times, must make the 
most of his Sabbaths. It would not be difficult to 
go through our churches and designate the men to 
whom the Sabbath of the Lord is a delight ; who 
hail with unusual joy the breaking of the morn of 
that holy day, and cry, '' This is the day the Lord has 
made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!" They 
are the men who " hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness," who say, " As the hart panteth after the water 
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." 
With what eager joy they anticipate those sacred 
hours, which in their quiet rest and calm devotion 
are a foretaste of the 

." Endless Sabbath of our God." 

Neither would it be difficult to designate those 
unto whom the Sabbath is not a delight, — to whom 
it is at best but a day of physical rest, — who use it 
for the outer and not for the inner man ; esteeming 
simple rest of the body of more value than the 
progress of the soul toward heaven. Such profess- 
ing Christians, overcome with the money-making 
toil of the week, deliberately use up all the precious 
moments of God's day, simply to recruit their over- 
tasked energies for another week's consecration to 
Mammon. They rise later than usual, for there is 
no business pressing. Though the " Idng's business 
requires haste ! " they are in no hurry. The day is 
to be spent in some way, and they have no specific 
plan of making the most of holy time. If a man 
should have no more forethought with reference to 



86 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

the daily business of life, he would be deemed in- 
sane. They enter in a lifeless manner upon the 
usual duties of the day. There is no soul in their 
devotions. There is no catechetical instruction in 
their household, no prompt response on the part of 
all its members, " I was glad when they said unto 
me, let us go up unto the house of the Lord." The 
day is spent in listlessness, in formal worship, in the 
reading of newspapers, and social visiting, in worldly 
thought and worldly talk, and worldly planning for 
the future. Thus Sabbath after Sabbath begins and 
ends in vain. No wonder the attainments of such 
Christians are exceedingly meagre. " Perdidi diem ! 
I have lost a day," is always a sad dirge for an im- 
mortal being to sing at any time. But for a ran- 
somed child of God, sent upon a great errand, thus 
to loiter by the way and lose a Sabbath, is dreadful. 
The Sabbath is a day for rousing up the soul to holy 
diligence and activity, a day in which, by large 
measures of Divine grace, the pilgrim may be pre- 
pared for the sharp rocks and ifierce conflicts of his 
journey, and by sweet communion with God may 
be filled with hope — to lose a Sabbath is a loss 
irreparable. Lord Jesus ! we thank thee for the 
Sabbath — we hail it as a grand means of sancti- 
fication — we hallow it and make it to our souls a 
foretaste of thlt other rest, when 

" AU shall be piety, and ail be peace." 

3. You must commune more tvith the ivord. You 
must " search the Scriptures." With a right hearty 
amen you must assent to this experience, " O how I 
love thy law, it is my meditation all the day! " You 



on BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 87 

must read your Bible n(3t occasionally but habitually, 
not superficially, but thoroughly ; not carelessly, but 
with earnest prayer ; not a part of it, but the whole 
of it. You must understand what is the will of 
God and the gospel rule of self-denial. You are not 
to regard it as a book of cold, abstract ethics, a sort 
of philosophical compend, a rare collection of the 
best maxims and sayings the world ever saw. But 
you are to receive it as the voice of God ; as your 
illuminator and guide. You are to feed upon it. It 
is to be manna to your hungry soul, and water to 
your thirsty spirit. You are to clasp it to your heart 
as your eternal treasure. It is to be your rule of 
faith and practice ; that by which you intend to live, 
wish to die, and by which you are willing to be 
judged. With all its doctrines and duties you are 
to receive it ; its warnings, as well as its invitations ; 
its hatred of sin, as well as its pardon for the sinner ; 
its hell as well as its heaven. 

Commune much with the word of God. Are you 
in darkness? here is your light; are you feeble? 
here is your strength ; are you desponding ? here is 
your hope. Here, plain as the pathway through the 
sea, marked by the pillar of fire, is the way of life. 

" The simplest traveller need not err." Why 
should you perish when the angel is above you, 
pointing to the gushing fountain ? If you would be 
a strong Christian, the '' word of God must divell in 
you richly." If you would mount up as on eagles' 
wings, if you v/ould run and not be weary, walk 
and not faint, you must say with Dr. Ide, " Thou 
dear old English Bible ! we will not forsake thee. 
Thou mayest b.e slandered and charged with bias- 



88 PEACTICAL EVANGELISM. 



phemy, but we will not part with thee! and when 
we lay our heads upon our last bed of sickness, this 
slandered, blessed book shall be our pillow, and in 
its own glorious words, we will breathe our last 
prayer, — Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 

4. Would you attain this state, then be in more 
intiiTiate fellowship with all the holy. 

By the " great cloud of witnesses," brethren, " lay 
aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily 
beset you." Walk more wdth Enoch, who walked 
w4th God. Comm.une m^ore with the heart of Eli- 
jah and David and Isaiah and John and Paul and 
Brainerd and Evarts and Payson. They have 
reached the summit of the mount. Let them attract 
you thither. Make them your bosom companions. 
It is not only true that " a man is known by the 
company he keeps," but his character is formed by 
it. If your intimate friends are worldly, you will 
imbibe their worldly spirit. Selfishness begets self- 
ishness, and love begets love. No one can make 
such men as Page, Martyn, and INIcCheyne his daily 
companions, without being in the end transformed 
into then' likeness. 

5. Especially must you commune much ivith the 
heart of Christ You must know him. You must 
drink in his spirit, you must be strengthened by his 
faith and softened by his love ; you must have your 
tenderest sympathies for the lost excited by his com- 
passion ; you must be energized by his zeal, and be 
sanctified by his truth. If you are worldly and self- 
ish, it is so because you live so far from Christ. If 
you are a mammon worshipper, it is because you 
commune more with the god of this world than with 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 89 

Christ. If you bear no daily cross and endure no 
self-denial; if your faith is weak and your life a 
libel on the Christian name, it is because you do 
not abide in Christ. 

The valleys of France have been the theatre of 
some of the most bloody persecutions, and at the 
same time some of the most marked triumphs of 
Christian faith, the world ever saw. On one occa*- 
sion a young Christian being interrogated sharply 
by a papist priest with reference to her faith and 
hope, replied, that she "trusted alone in Jesus 
Christ ! " The priest exclaimed impatiently, " Jesus 
Christ ! it is always Jesus Christ ! do you think 
Jesus Christ can do every thing ? " 

" Yes," she replied, " Jesus is every thing, ' "Who of 
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, 
and sanctification, and redemption, that according as 
it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the 
Lord!'" 

In a word, you must pray more. You never will 
be holy; your light will never shine ; you will never 
have moral power, and the beatitude of him who 
turns a sinner from the error of his ways, will never 
be yours, unless you are a praying man. 

The sentiment, " an honest man is the noblest 
work of God," has been reechoed by thousands who 
cared not for the truth it was supposed to contain. 
But from the Bible we learn that the noblest man is 
he who is a " prince with God and prevails." I had 
rather be Abraham, interceding with God for the 
doomed cities of the plain, than the honored ambas- 
sador of our republic to the proudest foreign court. 

I had rather be one of that immortal trio, Moses, 

8* 



90 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

Daniel, and Job, whom God eulogized, than to be 
one of a triumvkate \vho should divide the empire 
of the world. O the joy and the power of the 
praying man ! 

The writer has often stood by the bedside of one 
whose sick-chamber seemed to be the vestibule of 
heaven ; angels of light were there around that suf- 
fering child of God, who for years had been a 
" prince and prevailed." Oh ! to be in daily com- 
munion with the gi'eat God ! 

You must pray more habitually. The spirit of 
prayer is never attained by spasmodic effort. We 
are too impulsive in our habits of devotion. We 
hope in our spiritual pride, by a sudden flight to 
reach the summit of the mount of God, and are not 
undeceived till we find our waxen wings melted in 
the sun. The young convert, in the first impulse of 
pardoned sin, thinks that he is strong, that his char- 
acter is formed, and that no Apollyon will ever trip 
him up and "give him a dreadful fall." But he is 
mistaken, he is but a child, to be developed by 
prayer and labor. He will not stand fire on the 
field of battle, like an old soldier around whose 
brow a thousand bullets have whistled. He must 
cultivate the habit of prayer ; '' evening and morn- 
ing and noon " he must be found wrestling w^ith 
God. This is no child's play, this " crucifying 
of the flesh with the affections and lusts ; " this is 
no holiday tilt, this conflict with the " world, the 
flesh, and the devil." Only they who habitually 
" Vv^ait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength." 

He who would thus be a " prince with God " must 
be sincere in prayer. He is to deal with the great 



I 



^ OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 91 

Searcher of hearts. Every thought, passion, and 
emotion is open to his eye. He cannot be mocked. 
" If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not 
hear me." 

In the dying sayings of Bunyan, the following im- 
pressive passage occurs. " Before you enter into 
prayer, ask your soul these questions : — To what 
end, oh my soul, art thou retired into this place? 
Art thou come to commune with the Lord in 
prayer ? Is he present, will he hear thee ? Is thy 
business slight, or concerneth it not the welfare of 
thy soul ? What words wilt thou use to move him 
to compassion ? When thoa prayest, art thou more 
anxious that thy "heart should be without words, than 
that thy words should be without heart ? " 

If you would attain such a holy eminence, you 
must pray with self-ahasement and self-abandonment^ 
the two great elements of the prayer of faith. You 
must place yourself in the position of the publican, 
and his prayer must be yours. You must cast your- 
self upon sovereign grace, with the spirit of Esther, 
— "I will go in unto the king, and if I perish — I 
perish." With " holy boldness " you must venture 
on Him. You must not be afraid to trust him, if 
you would be " filled with all his fulness." Never 
shall the writer forget the emotion with which an 
awakened sinner once sang those words, — 

" Venture on Him, venture wholly, 
Let no other trust intrude ! " 

Days of joy and of gloom, of light and darkness, 
have gone by since then. Yet amidst the sharp 
temptations of Satan and the whisperings of unbe- 



92 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, ^ 

lief; in the heat and burden of the day; under the 
crushing responsibilities of the ministry; amid the 
crumbling of early hopes, when the " proud waters 
rolled over his soul " — there have been but few mo- 
ments when he could not say, — " My soul, rest thou 
only upon God, for my expectation is from him!" 

Six Christian wives met once a week for special 
prayer to God for six unconverted husbands. They 
were humble, persevering, and united in their peti- 
tions. To them there was an emphasis in this 
word, " If ye abide in me, and my words abide in 
you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done 
unto you." They believed God. One year passed 
by, and one husband was found at the cross. They 
continued to pray until they prevailed. They had a 
great object before them — they urged a great 
promise with great faith, and they obtained a large 
reward. 

Said the writer once to a mother whose husband 
had already joined the company "who walk in 
white," when her son was growing up to manhood, 
in the midst of revivals, regardless of God and holy 
things, " are you not sometimes overwhelmed with 
fear that one who can resist mercy so long, will be 
obdurate forever? " With a trembling lip and voice 
the response came welling up from a full heart, " O, 
sir, I cannot believe that a child of such faith and 
prayer will be lost ! My trust is in a covenant keep- 
ing God." 

" Be it unto you according to your faith." 

If you would "run up this shining way," with 
the angels of God on each side of you, you must 
pray in earnest. 



OR BIBLE CimiSTIAlSriTY. 93 

The patriarch whose name perpetuates the tri- 
umph of his faith, had reached a crisis through 
which he knew he could not pass without the arm 
of the God of Abraham. He was " left alone ; and 
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking 
of the day." Save the Lord's prayer, there is no 
better modelled petition recorded in the Bible 
than the prayer of Jacob. In his earnestness, we 
are reminded of another of whom it is said, " And 
being in an agony he prayed more earnestly." It 
was an earnestness whose language was, " I am in 
a great strait, no one but God can help me, and I 
will not let him go until he does ! " The danger 
was pressing, he had no time to hunt up rhetorical 
figures, nor surprise the Lord with an elaborate 
argument ; here is no pompous verbiage, nor un- 
meaning tautology. Esau was at hand. True, he 
had already wrestled to the break of day, but Jefc the 
sun roll up to the zenith, let the day wane, let an- 
other long night of doubt and darkness come down, 
and let the morning of another day break, I shall 
hold on to thy promise. I shall prevail, for " I w^ill 
not let thee go, except thou bless me." Oh ! it is 
enough, the victory is thine ! '' Thy name shall be 
called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast 
thou power with God and hast prevailed ! " No 
wonder the foar hundred rough desperadoes of 
Mount Seir stood amazed, when as the brothers met, 
they saw the lion changed to the Jamb! They 
Ivuew not that the pkevailer stood before them. 

Would you thus win, and at the last as one w^ho 
has turned many to righteousness, shine in the king- 



94 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

dom of your Father, you also, as a prince must have 
power with God. 

There is only one other means of promoting faith 
and holiness, and of advancing the work of practical 
evangelism, upon which the limit and the aim of 
this essay will permit us to dwell, namely : — 

6. The poiver of association in Christian confer- 
ence, mutual admonition, and united prayer. Next 
to the hearing of the word, the proper improvement 
of the Sabbath, the careful study of the Scriptures, 
with the attendant influence of the Holy Spirit, and 
personal communion with God, must this great 
means of personal holiness take its position. 

It was one of the first instrumentalities appointed 
by the Great Head, one of the first employed, and has 
ever been attended with the richest blessing, until, 
as a means of grace, in the exigencies of the church, 
it has come to be regarded as indispensable. The 
writer is thoroughly aware of the fact that the sub- 
ject is regarded by many as threadbare, and, he is 
afraid by some, as unwelcome. It has been harped 
upon from the days of Paul, it has been presented in 
every possible light, and by the most eloquent in the 
church, enforced upon the consciences of Christians, 
by argument, by facts, and by Scripture. No proper 
means has been left untried to rouse up the tor- 
pid pulse of the church to this duty, with how 
little success the state of our prayer-meetings will 
attest. 

Unquestionably, the most alarming token of the 
spiritual death which reigns, is, the condition of our 
churches in this particular. Who come up to our 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 95 

meetings* for prayer, and conference ? How many 
meet habitually " with one accord in one place ? " 
How many thus admonish one another ? Who are 
found at our concerts for prayer for colleges, for re- 
vivals, for the conversion of this world to God ? If 
only those who delight in such assemblages, and 
who ' meet often one with another,' can furnish 
credible evidence of piety, how appalling is the pro- 
portion of professors of religion who will hear that 
word of dismay, " Depart from me, for I know you 
not ! " 

Brethren, have we forgotten such words as these, 
" Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to 
another; and the Lord hearkened and heard it." 
Listen to it, ye who delight not in the place of 
conference and prayer, " and a book of remem- 
brance was written before him for them that feared 
the Lord, and that thought upon his name." " Ex- 
hort ONE another daily." " Let the word of Christ 
dwell in you richly, in all wisdom ; teaching and ad- 
monishing one another, in psalms and hymns and 
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to 
the Lord." 

No duty is more sacredly enjoined in the Bible 
than that of association for Christian improvement. 
No man can throw himself out of such communion 
and be safe. He needs the advice, the admonition, 
and the sympathy of his brethren. Every Christian 
whose heart has been in communion with the heart 
of Christ, himself becomes a magnet to attract other 
hearts. That which was leavened becomes, in turn, 
leaven to the rest. And he who by voluntary choice, 



96 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

or by circumstances, habitually neglects this means 
of sanctification, is in great peril 

In the early history of the church, when revivals 
of great purity and power rolled their waves over 
the whole Roman empire, and in later Puritan times, 
when the preaching of the word was greatly honored, 
much dependence was placed upon u:n'ited prayer. 
It might be well for us, Vv^ho place so much contempt 
upon this appointed instrumentality, to " stand in 
the paths and see, and ask for the old paths, where 
is the good way, and walk therein, and find rest to 
our souls,'' 

" I am confirmed in the opinion," says that ob- 
serving and godly man, Felix Neff", " that whoso- 
ever, even were he an angel, should neglect such 
meetings, under any pretext whatever, is very little 
to be depended on, and cannot be reckoned among 
the sheep of Clirist's fold." On his death-bed, writ- 
ing to his distant flock, he says, " I exhort you most 
particularly not to neglect the assembling of your- 
selves together .... where all may exhort, and 
where all are edified ; where each may communicate 
to his brethren his own sentiments, and the illumina- 
tion and grace which he has received from God. 
These are the only assemblies which can strictly be 
called mutual, where there is communion between 
brethren, and' where God has promised to give his 
blessing." 

Upon these assemblages the gi'eat Head of the 
church has placed the seal of his approbation. Here 
the weak are strengthened, the ignorant are in- 
structed, the wavering are placed upon the Rock, the 



OR BIBLE CHKISTIANITY. 97 

desponding are filled with hope, and the flame 
of brotherly love burns with a clear and steady- 
light. 

" Here pardoned rebels sit and hold 
Communion with their Lord." 

Here the Holy Ghost descends, and the faith and 
zeal and practical working talent of the whole church 
are developed. 

One of the most precious revivals of religion that 
ever came to the writer's knowledge, occurred when 
the church was deprived of the services of their 
pastor ; and from the beginning to the end of it, not 
one sermon was preached. They met for prayer, 
conference, and inquiry ; and each member, strength- 
ened by the Spirit, felt himself commissioned to go 
forth and labor as an ambassador for God. 

Brethren! there are blessings, great and abiding, 
which Christ has promised to bestow upon the 
church and the world in answer to united prayer, 
which we are not otherwise authorized to expect. 
Then, with such specific promises upon record, and 
with such facts before us, as crowd the experience 
of every true child of God, how can we, how dare 
we, by our negligence, place contempt upon this 
means ? 



CHAPTER VII. 

MOTIVES TO HOLY LIVING. 



" ^mse, therefore, and be doing, and the lord be with 
thee/' 

" And he saith unto me, seal not the sayings of the proph- 
ecy OF this book, for the time is at hand, he that 
IS unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is 

FILTHY let him BE FILTHY STILL, AND HE THAT IS RIGHT- 
EOUS LET HIM BE RIGHTEOUS STILL, AND HE THAT IS HOLY 
LET HIM BE HOLY STILL. AND BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY, 
AND MY REWARD IS WITH ME, TO GIVE EVERY MAN ACCORD- 
ING AS HIS WORK SHALL BE. I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA, THE 
BEGINNING AND THE END, THE FIRST AND THE LAST. BLESS- 
ED ARE THEY THAT DO HIS COMMANDMENTS THAT THEY MAY 
HAVE RIGHT TO THE TREE OF LIFE, AND MAY ENTER IN 
THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE CITY." 

"We have, as elaborately as our limits would per- 
mit, stated plainly some of the obvious and radical 
defects in Christian character which retard the Re- 
deemer's kingdom. We have dwelt upon the causes 
of such defects. We have contemplated the New 
Testament model of Christian character and life. 
We have endeavored to explain and illustrate that 
faith and self-denial so important in the work of 
winning souls, and so essential as a test of genuine 

(98) 



PKACTICAL EVANGELISM. 99 

discipleship ; together with the means of a higher at- 
tainment in holy living. 

It now remains for us to urge the peculiar obliga- 
tiojis of all Christians in this day of cumulative respon- 
sihilities to attain such a standard. It would be stat- 
ing a self-evident proposition were we to say, that 
the present measure of faith and holy living is alto- 
gether inadequate to accomplish the work now be- 
fore the church of Christ ; inadequate at any time — 
surely for the martyr age, and the era of apostolic 
self-denial — but quite as inadequate now in this 
age of covetousness which is idolatry — of formal- 
ism and of infidelity baptized with the name of 
Religion. 

Let us bear in mind, brethren, that when any 
great triumph of the church of God over the wick- 
edness of men, or any great victory of individual 
Christians over the w^orld has been attained, it was 
uniformly preceded by unusual developments of 
faith and holy living. It was so in the days of 
Noah. It was so in the days of Moses, preced- 
ing the exodus of the Jews. It was so on the part 
of Ezra and Nehemiah, preceding the rebuilding of 
the temple. It was so with Paul and the apostolic 
church, preceding the first era of primitive persecu- 
tion. It was so with Luther preceding and accom- 
panying the great Reformation. It was so on the 
part of American and Scotch Christians, preceding 
the great awakening of 1740, when revivals of great 
power swept over the land. It was so in 1800-10, 
preceding the first general development of the mod- 
ern missionary spirit, which has now planted the 
banner of the cross in India, Africa, China, and so 



100 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

many isles of the sea. And thus it ever will be, 
thus it should be. It is a part of that great spiritual 
law by which he, who is the Alpha and Omega, pro- 
poses to secure the spread of the trath. He might 
speak, and the universe would be bathed in light — 
every dark corner of the world would be illumined 
with gospel radiance, and the habitations of cruelty 
would become the habitations of piety and love. 
He might commission bands of holy angels, who 
now encircle his throne, to descend, and, without 
money, faith, or self-denial, proclaim to all the world 
good news and glad tidings. 

But this is not His plan. His kingdom on the 
earth is built up by faith and prayer ; by self-denial 
and holy living. No great victory of light over 
darkness has ever been Vv^on without them, and 
never will be. And in the overturning about to 
take place — in the downfall of institutions based 
upon superstition and defended by despotism ; in the 
running to and fro of knowledge in the earth ; in the 
crumbling of heathen pagodas and the erection of 
Christian temples ; in the opening of that morn 
when a nation shall be born in a day, and the whole 
earth be filled with his glory ; the gi'eat Captain of 
our salvation says, " Be it unto you according to 
your faith." 

The present' measure of faith and self-denial can 
hardly keep pace with the world, much less can it be 
aggressive and gain largely upon the apostasy. To 
secure a firm, steady, triumphant advance of the 
church against this gigantic foe, the measure of faith 
must be increased, and the cumulative power of 
holy hearts beating with Christ's, beating with love. 



OR BIBLE CHEISTIANITY. 101 

and beating altogether, must be felt over all the 
world. 

This appeal from God to the church to attain and 
exhibit a higher degree of holy living with special 
reference to the salvation of souls, is one that must 
be met, — not by excuses, because the service is 
hard and the cross heavy, — not by proxy, for every 
man must meet, in a manly way, his own responsi- 
bilities, — not by fair promises which he has no in- 
tention of keeping, like the flippant son who said, 
'^ I go, sir, and went not," — not by procrastination, 
for it must be met now, " the night cometh in which 
no man can work." This is one of those grand 
issues between the soul and God, which cannot be 
avoided. And there are certain facts and principles 
underlying the appeal which render the motives to 
heed it cumulative and overwhelming. 

One motive arises from the appeal itself. This 
appeal is of great moment. Whether we consider 
Him who makes it, our God and Father, our Re- 
deemer, the great Head of the church, our Prophet, 
Priest, and King ; or the circumstances under which 
the appeal is made ; or the infinite interests at stake. 
When the stirring appeal came down to the people 
of the old thirteen colonies, at the Declaration of 
American Independence, every man who shouldered 
his musket, had confidence both in the men who 
made the appeal and in the cause. Here is a cause 
infinitely more just, more grand, with interests of in- 
finite moment in peril. 

The appeal is made under such circumstances 
that every one feels that he is personally addressed. 
When the array of Gideon by two tests had been 

9* 



102 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

reduced to three hundred men, every one of that 
small band felt that he was under the eye of his 
leader. When Leonidas sent back all but three 
hundred men who stood with him to defend the 
straits of Thermopylae, there was not one of them 
who did not feel that on the boldness of his heart 
and might of his arm, the issue of that fight depended. 

This is an appeal made under the most solemn 
circumstances and motives, made before the church 
and world, and God and angels, with the most 
tremendous issues distinctly before us ; and the eter- 
nal weal and woe of millions of the race depending 
under God upon our response. 

We have but to glance at the gigantic work to be 
accomplished in our own country, to find a motive 
potent enough to waken and energize each Chris- 
tian heart. 

Look at the extent of our country. No one can, 
without a great effort, form any adequate idea of its 
vastness. " We may, perhaps, form the most just 
idea, by procuring a map and cutting out one of the 
older States and seeing how often we can lay it 
down on some of the new States and territories. 
Let Massachusetts, for example, a State among the 
most influential in the Union, be such a divisor. Ohio 
and Kentucky will each make five such States; 
Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, each, 
seven ; Missouri, nine ; Texas, forty-four ; the terri- 
tory ceded in the treaty with Mexico, seventy-two ; 
our wliole country will make four hundred and forty- 
eight such States as Massachusetts." 

What a country to evangelize! and what faith 
and prayer and self-denial must precede the spiritual 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 103 

conquest of this great land to the kingdom of the 
Son of God. 

Look at the condition of our country. What 
Christian can contemplate without lively interest, 
and, were it not for the word of God, without dis- 
may, the tide of emigration pouring in upon us. 
The number of foreigners who now annually seek 
our shores as an asylum from aristocratic oppres- 
sion, and monarchical despotism and unequal social 
rights, or for purposes of gain, or to escape gaunt 
famine and absolute starvation, cannot fall far short 
of one half a million. With their character, their re- 
ligion, and their social influence upon society at 
large we are familiar. Under God, what can save 
our churches from corruption, our communities from 
vice, and our republic from premature decay ? In 
absolute self-defence, ignoring for a moment any 
higher law of love toward the millions crowding 
upon us, we must do something to leaven this 
mass. We cannot come in constant contact with it 
in our present state and live. With no higher type 
of faith and self-denial, we shall gravitate but not at- 
tract. It will be death to us, but not life to them. 
But aside from the obligation of self-preservation, 
what a motive to holy living does the moral and 
social and spiritual condition of these masses furnish. 
Look at them filling up our cities, swarming upon 
our wharves, crowding our steamboats and raihoad 
cars, darkening the pathway of our great internal 
improvements, riding upon the top of the first bil- 
low that breaks upon our unsettled territories. Look 
at them swelling our mobs, carousing at our grocer- 



104 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

ies, making our nights hideous, filling our peniten- 
tiaries and almshouses, and swelling our pauper tax. 
Look at them in their ignorance and degradation, 
their infidelity and profanity, the slaves of a design- 
ing priestcraft, and the dupes of unprincipled dema- 
gogues. Behold them in all their relations to the 
political, educational, and religious interests of this 
land, and there are no people on the footstool of 
God to be found, who have larger demands upon 
the pity of the philanthropist and the self-denying 
labors of the Christian. 

How shall we reach them ? How break through 
the wall of adamant which superstition and vicious 
customs have built around them ? How shall we 
meet the French and Italian and German and Irish 
and Portuguese and Swiss and Chinese emigrant as 
he lands upon the shores of the New World, and in 
his own tongue proclaim to him the revelation of 
God ? "We cannot do it without a high degi'ee of 
that " faith which works by love and purifies the 
heart." 

Here is a work at once grand and imperative ; 
gigantic enough for the broadest Christian philan- 
thropy, hard enough for the truest self-denial — a 
work of practical evangelism. Is the church of God 
in America ready to enter upon it ? 

Look, too, at the educational condition of our 
country. What an appalling number of adults — 
1,053,420 in all, who can neither write their own 
name, nor read their own vote, and to whom the 
word of God is a sealed book. 

Look at the myriad types of infidelity^ from the 



OK BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 105 

■unblushing atheist, whose " eyes stand out with fat- 
ness," to the most fashionable and most approved 
form of German transcendentalism. 

Look at the heaving of our political volcano. 
Witness the triumph of the " lower law " policy, 
the utter disregard of the claims of God by many of 
our public men, the total w^ant of legislative con- 
science, and the complete shipwreck of public faith. 

Look at the moral condition of our country. Sad 
enough is it to make an angel weep. With her 
present measure of piety, can the church of God 
hope to combat successfully with intemperance, 
slavery. Sabbath desecration, and profanity — those 
four mammoth sins, prolific fountains of so many 
streams of death ? 

Look once more at the external and internal re- 
ligious condition of our country, — our divisions and 
subdivisions, our want of practical oneness and 
moral power, and the almost insurmountable obsta- 
cles to the salvation of souls, and conversion of this 
world to God, which exist in the bosom of the 
church. Look at all these things, and but for the 
grace of God, we are appalled ; but with that 
grace, we feel that " we can do all things through 
Christ strengthening us." In all these elements of 
death and gigantic hinderances, the man of faith but 
hears this command, --^" Arise, therefore, and be 
doing, and the Lord be with thee." 

But there is a more extensive view of this subject, 
which if possible furnishes us with a more cogent 
motive, and to which our limits only permit us to 
allude. The work to be done which now challenges 



106 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

our faith, is the conversion of the whole world to 
God. 

And the most indubitable proof of that stupor, the 
fruit of a low standard of piety, which has settled 
down upon us, brethren, is the little emotion with 
which we contemplate such a work. Great Head of 
the church ! can we be the purchase of thy blood, thy 
chosen ones, upon whom thou wilt write thy name, 
and whom on that great coronation day thou wilt 
crown as kings forever, — and yet wdthout emotion 
contemplate a dying world ! 

In the graphic language of one whose faith and 
devotion have seldom been equalled, and in the 
modern church never surpassed, — "to say nothing 
of the multitudes who are crowding the way to 
death in the most favored regions ; to say nothing 
of whole nations in the Komish and Greek churches, 
who though they bear the Christian name are appar- 
ently living without God in the world ; to say noth- 
ing of hundreds of thousands of nominal Christians 
scattered through Asia and Africa who scarcely re- 
tain any thing of Christianity but the name ; to say 
nothing of three millions of Jews, it is a distress- 
ing truth that more than two thirds of the population 
of the globe are still buried under Pagan or IMoham- 
medan darkness, and are as abominably wicked as 
sin can make them. Of that Avretched portion of 
our race it cannot be computed that, apart from 
infants and small children, less than seven millions 
and a half die a year, twenty thousand a day, and 
eight or nine hundred every hour ! " * 

Think of it, thou supine and ease-loving Christian, 

* Dr. Griffin. 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 107 

the whole globe, with few exceptions, for six thou- 
sand years pouring her mighty adult population down 
the broad road! See them mingling in strange 
heterogeneousness of language and of customs, but 
in striking homogeneousness of character, aim, and 
destiny, the rich man and poor man, the bond and 
free, the erudite and ignorant, from every continent 
and tribe, untold millions rolling on a mighty flood 
of living, sinning, immortal souls through the " wide 
gate " and the " broad way." 

If a man can be found in the church of God, in- 
sensible to such a motive, he surely must be a 
stranger to Divine love. He certainly can have no 
sympathy with those who obey the " great commis- 
sion," nor can he share their triumph. 

Another reason why the appeal should have great 
weight with us, is because, for the accomplishment 
of this work so much has been done to prepare the 
luay, 

" Now behold in my poverty (marg.) I have pre- 
pared for the house of the Lord one hundred thou- 
sand talents of gold, one million of silver, and of 
brass and iron without weight, for it is in abun- 
dance, — timber also and stone also have I prepared. 
Moreover there are workmen with thee, masons and 
carpenters (marg.) in abundance, and all manner of 
skilful men for every sort of work. Of the gold, 
silver, brass, and iron, there is no number." The 
glory of the temple was not owing more to the jvis- 
dom of Solomon, than to the care and toil of David 
in furnishing the materials. No wonder it rose up 
as if by magic. 

Now look abroad and see the material already 



108 PRACTICAL EVAITGELISM, 

furnished to your hand, for this gi'eat work of evan- 
gelism ! Look at our colleges and schools ; our 
churchesj and Bibles, and tracts, and presses, and mis- 
sionary boards, and languages conquered, and mis- 
sionary stations, and at the whole array of auxili- 
aries and means. Paul and Barnabas, Silas and 
Timothy, had none of these ; the early martyrs who 
died under the cloud, the men who bore the heat 
and burden of the day, who in some sense were like 
David, "men of war," had none of these; Luther 
had none ; but we have the gold, the silver, and the 
workmen in abundance — therefore let us " arise and 
be doing." Who knoweth but we are come to the 
kingdom for a time like this ! 

Such an augmentation of faith and holiness is the 
only effectual way to unite all the people of God in a 
practical oneness ; to annihilate all petty differences 
and partisan zeal ; and to develop and concentrate 
all their moral power in one united and holy crusade 
against the foes of God, and the enemies of evan- 
gelical religion. 

In the era of the crusades to recover the holy sepul 
chre from the Saracen, and now after fifteen hundred 
years first practically achieved by diplomacy, Briton, 
Scot, and Frenchman all met as brethren in arms, 
and so long as no unholy feud arose, they were vic- 
torious. So, if in the holiest of all crusades, we 
would not be driven in disgrace from the battle field, 
we must be one. 

" Let party names no more 

The Christian Tvorkl o'erspread ; 
Gentile and Jew and bond and free 
Are ONE in Christ, their head." 



OR BIBLE CHEISTIAXITY. 109 

To secure such a standard of holy living, the 
writer in the Apocalypse has furnished us vv^ith other 
motives. He tells us, the time is at iiaxd, — the 
consummation of all things,- — the fulfilment of 
prophecy in the triumph of the gospel, — the time 
for the rider upon the white horse to go forth, con- 
quering and to conquer, — the time for closing up 
the remedial scheme, — the time when the Book 
shall be sealed, and 

" Love's redeeming work be o'er." 

The time of the millennium will soon be upon us, 
■ — it will soon be past, — the spiritual temple will be 
finished, — the angels with great rejoicing will lay 
the last stone upon its summit. " Then what thy 
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." God 
cannot wait for you — the angels will not wait, who 
" shout the harvest home '' — truth will not wait — 
providences will not wait. 



" God's purposes will ripen fast, 
Unfolding every hour." 



"Would you, therefore, proclaim "Jesus and the 
Resurrection " to the fifty-seven millions of x^frica, 
you must make haste, for the time is at hand ! 
Would yon cry, " Behold the Lamb of God," to the 
three hundred millions of China, you must make 
haste. Would you cry to the hundred and thh'ty 
millions of India, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved ! " you must make 
haste. Would you cry to the heedless thousands in 
a gospel land, who with mammon and ambition 

10 



110 PEACTICAL EVAKGELISM, 

and last hurrying them along, are pressing on the 
road to death, 

" Stop, O sinner ! stop and tliink, 
Before you furtlier go ! " 

you must make haste. ' Why stand ye all the day 
idle ? Enter with a hearty good-will into the vine- 
yard, if ye would work for the Master, and save 
many " a soul from death, and hide a multitude of 
sins." 

The time of reiuard is at hand. " Behold, I come 
quickly ! and my reward is with me, to give every 
man according as his work shall be." The time 
when the king shall say to them " who, by patient 
continuance in well doing," and self-denying evan- 
gelism, have taken up their cross daily to follow 
Christ, — " well done, good and faithful servant," — 
and of the supine and indolent men who rolled in 
wealth vvdiile the Lord's treasury was empty ; who 
sat in their tent door, at ease, while their brethren 
went up to fall on the field of battle ; who loved 
houses and lands and friends and self more than 
Christ ; — he shall say, " Take ye the wicked and un- 
profitable servant, and cast him into outer darkness, 
where there shall be weeping and wailing and 
gnashing of teeth." 

We are soon to enter upon our reward. The 
throne of judgment will soon be set. " Behold, I 
come quickly." " Blessed is that servant that watch- 
eth." " My reward is v/ith me." I shall do justice 
to all, injustice to none. If they have "kept my 
commandments they shall have right to the tree of 



% 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. Ill 

life, and shall enter in through the gates into the 
city." If they have endured hardness as good sol- 
diers of Jesus Christ, they shall receive the crown 
which the righteous Judge will give them at that 
day. If fainthearted in the day of peril ; if they 
have not run well, but turned back, more afraid of 
the frown of man than the anger of God, they rest 
on the hypocrite's hope, and shall receive the hypo- 
crite's doom. 

If they have borne upon their hearts God's little 
ones, to whom they have given a cup of cold water, 
— if they have gone with the spirit of benevolence 
and self-denial to make known the message of 
Divine love to the dying, — they shall hear amid the 
swelling of angelic harps, "inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
have done it unto me." 

Brethren in Christ, heirs together of the grace of 
God, joint-heirs with Christ in the same inheritance: 
here is your work. Here the sublime and appropriate 
mission to which He invites you. Here are the 
motives with which infinite love would prompt you 
to holy living, and self-denying evangelism. Vv^hat 
say ye ? " The Master is come, and calleth for you." 
Will you arise to meet him ? Will you say with an 
intense ardor, " Lord, here am I, send me ! " 



" All that I am, and all I have, 
Shall be forever thine." 



The world is perishing, — the vast, benighted 
heathen world, for which Christ died, and in refer- 
ence to which He has said, " Go ye into all the 



112 PRACTICAL EVANGELISM, 

WORLD and preach the gospel to every creature," — - 
the world in darkness and in guilt is perishing, and 
I must do something to save it. 

Sinners are perishing, — sinners in a gospel land, 
to whom the waters of life are as though they were 
not flowing, and the gospel feast is as though it had 
not been spread ; and to whom the glad tidings, 
alas, perverted and rejected as openly and contempt- 
uously as the Jewish high -priest had rejected the 
Son of God, have become a " savor of death unto 
death," — sinners, old and young, of every condition 
and type of guilt, are hastening to the second death, 
and I must do something to arrest them. 

We have seen that even om* own country is in 
many respects in a sad condition, and yet this coun- 
try is in advance of most, if not all, the nations of the 
earth in its good institutions — a countiy eminently 
blessed of God — a country founded upon faith and 
prayer, from the beginning consecrated to the God 
of freedom, and which may yet become the model 
republic for the world, and upon whose hill-tops and 
along whose valleys may first resound the song of the 
millennium. Oh, I must do something to save my 
country, and aid her to accomplish her destiny. 

And the church of the great Redeemer, bought 
with his blood, and sealed with his Spirit, now every- 
where too much under the despotism of mammon, 
and in bondage to covetousness, rent with unholy 
schisms, and her light obscured, needs my example, 
toil, and prayers. She must arise from the dust, put 
on her beautiful garments, and go forth in the 
strength of God, to this great battle, " conquering 
and to conquer," and I must do something to hasten 
such a consummation. 



OR BIBLE CHRISTIANITY. 113 

At a time when the Macedonian cry is multiply- 
ing with greater intensity ; when the guilt of an 
apostate world is deepening ; when the instrumen- 
talities raised up by the providence of God are in- 
creasing; when the responsibility of the universal 
church, and the obligations of each individual Chris- 
tian are augmenting ; when the signs of the times 
that foreshadow great turnings and overturnings are 
cumulating — can we, bare we stand still ? At such 
a time, shall I, a ransomed sinner, dependent on 
sovereign mercy, heir to a crown whose smallest 
jewel infinitely outweighs in value all the diadems 
of earth; I who hope to sing the song of Moses 
and the Lamb when the new heaven and the new 
earth appear, shall I forget the grand mission on 
which I am sent, and have no part in the work of 

PRACTICAL EVANGELISM? 



END. 



